The 21-year-old has appeared disengaged and immature at Barça – but he has a habit of scoring when it mattersBy night, he plays video games and eats junk food; by day, he rides to the rescue, saving the same men who have been trying to save him from himself.Ousmane Dembélé’s national team manager says arriving late is “a little habit of his”, and it’s one that the manager of his club is trying to get him out of, his teammates too, but on Saturday he arrived just in time. Related: Ousmane Dembélé’s last-gasp goal saves draw for Barcelona at Atlético Madrid | GOAL! | ICE COLD OUSMANE DEMBELE ️The winger brings the Barcelona level against Atletico Madrid, 1-1! pic.twitter.com/bNXuwPOlEx| GOAL!...
Before the match, Real Betis’s manager had to apologise for his admiration for Barça. After beating them, Barcelona’s players spoke of their admiration for him In the final moments before the first half began on Sunday afternoon, Real Betis’s manager, Quique Setién, approached Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets and asked him for his shirt. He wanted to frame it, he said. Busquets nodded and smiled, so Setién thanked him and headed out towards the bench at the Camp Nou. As he went, he also had a word with Lionel Messi, whose shirt already hangs on his wall, alongside that of Luka Modric. Messi was returning to action after three weeks out with a broken arm, today of all days, and Setién...
Barcelona finally shrugged off the ghost of Butarque but Atlético and Real had their own battles as La Liga’s threads all came together in Madrid“The Ghost of Butarque: that’s a good name for a novel,” Ernesto Valverde said. It was coming up to midnight three days after Halloween and, Barcelona’s manager admitted, “everywhere we turned the Ghost of Butarque appeared.” His team were back in Madrid for the first time since September, the final leg of a Grand Day Out in the capital – Leganés v Atlético at 1pm, Real Madrid v Valladolid at 4.15pm, Rayo v Barcelona at 8.45pm – and it was happening again: the same feelings, the same fears. Back then, Barcelona lost at bottom-placed Leganés, their...
In the last decade, Barcelona had beaten Real Madrid 5-0, 4-3, 3-2, 4-0, 3-1 and 6-2. Now they can add a 5-1 to that listSofi Balbi couldn’t be there the day her husband became only the second footballer to score a hat-trick in 70 clásicos going back a quarter of a century, but fortunately the neighbour was available to take the kids to the game for her. They wouldn’t have wanted to miss this for the world and, off work with a broken arm, he didn’t have anything better to do. Besides, he was taking his son anyway. So, Sofi stayed home with five-day-old Lautaro and watched on telly while Benja and Delfina had a day out with Lionel and...
Il Fenomeno’s one season at the Camp Nou brought 47 goals – one against Compostela will live long in the memorySometimes, you’re remembered for being close to history, rather than making it. Take SD Compostela: for most of their existence they’ve played in the Spanish regional leagues, but their four seasons in the top flight in the mid-1990s just happened to coincide with one of the greatest individual campaigns football has ever seen. Pretty much everyone outside of Spain remembers them for one moment, in a game they lost 5-1.Ronaldo scored 47 goals in 1996-97, his only season at Barcelona, but it isn’t the numbers that make nostalgics go moist at the eye. At the most basic level, what thrilled...