The dazzling but flawed Brazilian teenager ended his latest goal drought to resurrect Real Madrid and blow Barça awayFirst Casemiro told Vinícius Júnior where to go, then Toni Kroos showed him. And so, as it turned out, did Gerard Piqué although that wasn’t what he wanted. With 19 minutes left in the clásico it all came together and the next thing they knew this kid was standing there in the middle of the mayhem showing everyone the badge on his shirt, a massive grin on his face. There was resurrection and redemption for all of them, and for Vinícius especially. There was a huge roar too, the ball in the net and Real Madrid top of the table, the league...
Zinedine Zidane knows his side must improve after a poor league run and European loss but nor are Barcelona in great fettlerThe Manchester City fans high in the north-east stand of the Bernabéu who belted out Blue Moon weren’t the only ones who had enjoyed watching Real Madrid lose on Wednesday night. For Barcelona supporters, any defeat for their rivals is to be celebrated and all the more so if it is inflicted by Pep Guardiola, but this carried still greater significance, bringing a surge of hope. As City fans sang in the stadium, 370 miles away Sport prepared its front page. The picture showed the manager pointing, by the headline: “Pep, you show us the way.”Four days later Barcelona...
Sacking of Ernesto Valverde and Messi’s fallout with sporting director Eric Abidal are symptoms of long-term stagnation and disjointed structure at the Camp NouL ast Tuesday, as Lionel Messi lashed out at the club’s sporting director, Eric Abidal, the crisis at Barcelona became official. But this is a story about far more than clashing egos and mismanagement at the Camp Nou. It is a parable of modern football, of the problem with genius and the difficulty of identity.Perhaps the strangest aspect of the saga – sparked by the Argentinian reacting with fury to what he saw as Abidal’s attempt to blame the players for the recent sacking of Ernesto Valverde – is that it has taken so long to reach...
Against Granada it was very Setién. It was also very Barcelona, in a move driven by nostalgia, but with a glimpse of the futureNine hundred and ninety-eight … 999… 1,000. And still it went. Jordi Alba played the ball to Riqui Puig, who played it to Sergi Busquets, who played it to Arthur Melo, who played it to Sergi Roberto, who played it to Gerard Piqué. Who, finally halted on 100, didn’t get the chance to play it to anyone else. Half an hour before his first game as coach of Barcelona, Quique Setién had sat on the bench alongside his assistant Éder Sarabia, empty seats rising around them, still barely able to believe they were here, and silently contemplated...
New manager will have to deal with a powerful dressing room and a club that demands success with style“It’s not normal to take over at a team that’s top,” Quique Setién said after the call that took him from a stroll among the cows in Liencres, Cantabria, to a job among the sacred cows at the Camp Nou. “When you’re out of work, waiting for an opportunity, you imagine a team near the bottom, in trouble,” said Barcelona’s new manager. Instead on Sunday night he will occupy his place in the dugout at a place where they have not seen their team lose for 38 games, going back more than a year – not since the last time he was...