A decisive debate ahead of the Champions League: the hot takes on Valladolid-Barça

BarcelonaA Barça full of rotations made it through the match in Valladolid (1-2) And now they can look ahead to Tuesday's semifinal return to Milan. Here are four quick notes from the Blaugrana triumph in Zorrilla.

More than half the team is different from the Champions League. Ter Stegen for Szczesny; Héctor Fort for Kounde, Araujo for Iñigo, Christensen for Cubarsí; Gavio for De Jong, Fermín López for Dani Olmo; Dani Rodríguez for Lamine Yamal, Pau Víctor for Ferran Torres and Ansu Fati for Raphinha. In total, nine changes compared to the demanding first leg against Inter Milan. Only Pedri and Gerard Martín were in the starting lineup. The Canary Islander played only 45 minutes. At halftime, he was replaced by Frenkie de Jong. However, the full-back did play the entire match. Gerard will not start in Milan. Flick is confident of getting Balde back and, when he runs out of gas, relocate Iñigo.

And with Ansu Fati, what will we do? The B unit didn't work, and the team went into the break trailing 1-0 at the bottom of the table, a team that has only collected 16 points all season. Losing to Valladolid, no matter how lazy the game was in the middle of the tie against Inter, would have been a disastrous outcome in La Liga: if Real Madrid wins this Sunday against Celta Vigo (2 p.m., Movistar LaLiga), they would be just one point behind in the Clásico on May 11 at Montjuïc. Flick's patience lasted 45 minutes. At halftime, he replaced an indistinct Ansu with Raphinha, who would initiate the comeback. The Barça number 10 only managed one good shot between the posts.

Who should play in Milan? Before playing against Inter, Flick said that Szczesny would be the goalkeeper in the Champions League, and before playing against Valladolid, that Ter Stegen would return between the sticks. The Pole raised doubts against the Italians, especially with the third goal conceded from a corner. In contrast, the German, who returned to play 223 days after his knee injury, put in a solid performance in Zorrilla. In the two most demanding situations, a one-on-one in the 10th minute with Raúl Moro and a cross from Latasa shortly after the 73rd minute, the Barça captain showed that he's back in full force. The debate over the goalkeeping situation is on the cards.

The most difficult ballot. Flick entrusted the task of replacing Lamine Yamal to Dani Rodríguez, a 19-year-old winger from Barça's reserve team, born in Astigarraga (Guipúzcoa). A former Real Sociedad youth player, he was one of the most active in attack. His task was the most difficult: to make the team's star player forget his absence. Bad luck struck him: injured after half an hour, he had to leave the pitch in a heavy sling. It was a bittersweet debut for a player who joined the youth team in the summer of 2020. Although he started out as an inside midfielder, in recent years he has played as a winger, mainly on the right.