Barcelona booked their place in the last 16 of the Champions League with a 4-1 over Copenhagen on Wednesday. While Hansi Flick’s side would eventually run out comfortable winners thanks to second-half goals from Robert Lewandowski, Lamine Yamal, Raphinha and Marcus Rashford, they suffered through a frustrating opening 45 minutes after they went behind to a fourth0minute goal from teenager Viktor Dadason.<\/p>\n
While Bar\u00e7a enjoyed the lion’s share of the ball in the game’s opening moments, they were completely undone by an incisive Copenhagen attack as Mohamed Eyenoussi’s straight through-ball carved open the hosts’ centre backs, with Flick’s trademark high line giving 17-year-old Dadason a one-on-one with Joan Garcia that he dispatched with a cool side-foot finish.<\/p>\n
The hosts started to turn the screw, however, as Lewandowski got a clear look at goal from an errant back pass, but his finish was uncharacteristically wasteful. Erica Garcia also almost equalised, but his deflected effort was kept out expertly Dominik Kotarski in the Danish side’s net.<\/p>\n
Bar\u00e7a continued to dominate the ball, boasting 75% of possession at the end of the first half, but they struggled to break the visitors down, with Eric Garcia’s thunderous effort that hit the crossbar and Yamal’s snatched effort the best they could muster.<\/p>\n
Yamal was crucial in finally bagging the equaliser, however. Shortly after the resumption of play, Dani Olmo’s beautiful pass scythed through the left side of the vistiors’ defense, setting the Spanish wonderkid towards goal. Rather than take a shot himself, Yamal laid the ball off perfectly for Lewandowski with the outside of his left boot, allowing the Polish legend to sweep home his 106th Champions League goal.<\/p>\n
That seemed to spur the 19-year-old on, as Yamal took over the game in a six-minute spell that effectively put the contest to bed. On the hour, his curled effort from the edge of the box took a wicked deflection, looping the ball over a hapless Kotarski, and just moments later, his cross found Lewandowski’s chest, who was subsequently caught by the Copenhagen defender, setting up Raphinha to fire a penalty into the bottom corner.<\/p>\n
Substitute Rashford added a fourth, as his smartly taken free-kick caught Kotarski unaware at his near post. Barcelona were lucky not to concede a late consolation goal, however, as Gabriel Pereira’s header was ruled out after Pantelis Chatzidiakos was adjudged to have interfered from an offside position.<\/p>\n
Bar\u00e7a finish the league phase in fifth place, securing safe passage to the round of 16, where they could meet defending champions Paris Saint-Germain or Newcastle, amongst others.<\/p>\n
GOAL<\/strong> rates Barcelona’s players from Camp Nou…<\/p>\n Joan Garcia (5\/10):<\/strong><\/p>\n Little he could do to stop Copenhagen’s opener. Bailed out by VAR as he was caught flapping under a cross.<\/p>\n Jules Kounde<\/strong> (7\/10):<\/strong><\/p>\n Put in some firm tackles and provided an outlet in possession. A polished performance.<\/p>\n Pau Cubarsi<\/strong> (6\/10):<\/strong><\/p>\n A straight through-ball cutting open your defense never looks good for the centre-backs, but such is the risk of Flick’s high line. After that early setback, Cubarsi didn’t put a foot wrong.<\/p>\n Gerard Martin<\/strong> (6\/10):<\/strong><\/p>\n A comfortable day at the office after an early shot across the bow.<\/p>\n Alejandro Balde<\/strong> (7\/10):<\/strong><\/p>\n Drove forward with the ball and defended Copenhagen’s sporadic counters well.<\/p>\n Eric Garcia (5\/10):<\/strong><\/p>\n Looked a surprising goal threat as his long-range efforts in the first half troubled Kotarski. Other areas of his game clearly were not up to his manager’s standards, however, and he got the hook at half-time.<\/p>\n Dani Olmo (7\/10):<\/strong><\/p>\n His raking pass set the wheels in motion for the equaliser. Quick feet in tight spaces meant he looked comfortable in a deeper role.<\/p>\n Fermin Lopez<\/strong> (6\/10):<\/strong><\/p>\n A relatively quiet night as most of the attacking impetus came down the flanks. Dropped deeper in the second half after Flick’s subs and kept things ticking over well enough.<\/p>\n Lamine Yamal (9\/10):<\/strong><\/p>\n Set up Lewandowski’s equaliser perfectly with a deft touch after a lung-busting run in behind. A lucky deflection then gifted him a goal of his own. The pass into Lewandowski to win the penalty was inch perfect. A true difference-maker.<\/p>\n Robert Lewandowski (6\/10):<\/strong><\/p>\n Gifted a chance to equalise almost immediately after Copenhagen’s opener. A bit wasteful in his build-up play, but he still got his goal in the end.<\/p>\n Raphinha (7\/10):<\/strong><\/p>\n A consummately taken penalty by the Barcelona captain. Some smart flicks and tricks in build-up play, too.<\/p>\n Marc Bernal (5\/10):<\/strong><\/p>\n A more natural midfielder than Eric Garcia.<\/p>\n Marcus Rashford (6\/10):<\/strong><\/p>\n Full of direct running. A very cleverly taken free-kick rounded out the second-half comeback.<\/p>\n Ronald Araujo<\/strong> (5\/10):<\/strong><\/p>\n A comfortable runout for the club captain as he returns from a mental health break.<\/p>\n Marc Casado<\/strong> (N\/A):<\/strong><\/p>\n Introduced in the 79th minute with little time to affect the game.<\/p>\n Ferran Torres<\/strong> (N\/A):<\/strong><\/p>\n Brought on to give Lewandowski a breather in the final 10 minutes.<\/p>\n Hansi Flick (7\/10):<\/strong><\/p>\n Dominant in possession without any luck in the first half, it did always feel like Barca would come away with the win. Through to the last 16. Job done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY Barcelona booked their place in the last 16 of the Champions League with a 4-1 over Copenhagen on Wednesday. While Hansi Flick’s side would eventually run out comfortable winners thanks to second-half goals from Robert Lewandowski, Lamine Yamal, Raphinha and Marcus Rashford, they suffered through a frustrating opening 45 minutes after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}