Barça shows Madrid how to come back with an epic second half

BarcelonaAt Barça, every day feels like a grand celebration. The wind blows in favor of an invigorating team that excites in its pursuit of the treble. Against Celta, in a match still played with the sweet taste of Champions League wine on their lips, Hansi Flick's team turned around a seemingly lost game and showed that, when legs fail, heart does. In a few minutes, Barça went from losing 3-1 to emerging victorious, with Raphinha scoring a penalty in stoppage time. In just a few months, Hansi Flick has managed to build a Barça that brings all its critics to their knees, one after another. Little by little, all those who doubted the German coach are falling off their high horse and converting, changing their faith. There are few left who still decry a team with a big heart that for a moment seemed to stumble, which would have allowed Madrid to dream of sucking the wounds of the Champions League by joining the fight for La Liga. He'll have to wait; this Barça doesn't want to leave him even the crumbs.

Despite their fatigue, the Blaugrana team managed to keep a cool head and turn around a match that had become very complicated with Borja Iglesias' three goals. The sweet joy that came with the Champions League gave way to a bout of indigestion with an unexpected stumble late in the second half. But no, it was just a scare. Barcelona fans are still celebrating. For fans, football is nothing more than a space to let their hearts fly and forget about the problems of everyday life, so after returning to the Champions League semifinals, Barcelona fans remained euphoric despite Fick's warnings, who wants to bring the unlucky crowd back down to earth. It's your fault, Hansi, for doing too well.

And, in fact, the match started in the best possible way, with Ferran Torres inventing a prodigious goal, gliding between opponents and connecting with a sharp shot that the visiting goalkeeper, Vicent Guaita, could never reach. A Foios forward marking a Torrent goalkeeper, it all remained between the Valencians. It seemed like the start of just another formality for Barça, one more step towards the Canaletes fountain. But it wouldn't be, since they would have to do a lot of digging.

Flick looked pissed off. He knew the importance of the match against this good Celta de Vigo side that plays and lets play. He knew that Claudio Giráldez's team doesn't scare easily, this year dreaming of returning to European competition with a host of homegrown youngsters. But with Inter Milan and the Copa del Rey final looming, the German coach had to make painful decisions, like leaving Lamine Yamal on the bench. It made sense, since the young man from Mataró plays everything and had been looking too tired in recent days. Better to replace him against Celta than against Inter, he must have thought. And, in fact, the gamble paid off with Ferran's goal in the opening minutes of the match.

The joy was short-lived, as this Celta team enjoys running. Taking advantage of Gerard Martin's back, Pablo Duran delivered a cross that Szczesny swallowed up. On the very day Deco declared that the veteran Polish goalkeeper would surely stay at the club next season, he made a mistake that allowed Borja Iglesias to equalize. "El Panda," as he is known, would repeatedly torment a Barça defense that was too open.

The Blaugrana team always had the initiative, but couldn't get a second and played with fire whenever they failed to apply pressure after losing the ball. Celta, without doing anything out of the ordinary, would occasionally bite, like flies do when rain is announced. And well into the second half, a serious error by Frenkie de Jong allowed Borja Iglesias to score the second goal. The day had started sunny and was turning gray.

Flick, then, called on Lamine Yamal and Dani Olmo. Things needed to be shaken up for a Barça side where Lewandowski was too isolated and Pedri, always judicious, couldn't break the visitors' spirits. This Celta knew how to play and would take advantage of another defensive error to score the third, with Borja Iglesias gently tapping the ball past Barça's Polish goalkeeper. Once inside the Blaugrana waterline, however, the ball was still in the air. But within minutes, Dani Olmo, almost with his first touch, would score the second goal. A key moment, as Celta suddenly no longer felt in control of the match and could see the players in front of them changing their attitude. The substitutions worked for Flick. It's true that if you can bring in players of Olmo's and Lamine Yamal's talent, it's easy to be a winning bet. And a cross from Lamine Yamal would be finished off by Raphinha in the back of the goal with more than 25 minutes left to show Madrid the meaning of the word comeback, these days when they've used him so much.

The final minutes were an eternal Barça siege, with Gavi coming on to cause chaos in place of Lewandowski, who couldn't score his 100th goal in a Barça shirt after suffering an injury that could have kept him out of the Copa del Rey final. Barça would find their reward with a penalty on Dani Olmo that required a VAR call to be awarded, adding to the excitement before Raphinha scored the goal that sent the stadium into a collective frenzy. The Brazilian symbolizes the spirit of this Barça, with his outburst. The calendar is increasing, the schedules aren't helping, and the players are tired, but this team wants to take on the world.