A 'manita' for the Blaugrana to say goodbye to Mestalla

BarcelonaFireworks to say goodbye to Mestalla (0-5). Barça, which has put all its repertoire of offensive tricks on the table, has thrashed Valencia in a match in which it was favored by the calamitous state of a rival that, normally, used to make things difficult. Now it is experiencing an internal civil war that is bleeding it dry, with the fans fed up with a management that is sinking them. If Barça lives relatively happily, Valencia does not. And the match, which could be Barça's last at Mestalla pending a possible duel in the Cup, has highlighted this reality. In fact, attacking as it has done today, Barça would also have won at the Mestalla of before, the one where all rivals suffered greatly. Barça has scored five goals and did not even need to play at 100% during the second half.

In 25 minutes, Barça had already scored two goals and a third was narrowly disallowed. A comfortable triumph in a beautiful stadium, one of those from the past, where you can breathe football and where new idols, like Lamine Yamal, do their thing in the same physical space where Samitier, Puchades, Cruyff, Kempes, Fernando, and Messi had already scored. A stadium condemned to be demolished, since Valencia also considers that it needs a new venue with many spaces for VIPs. It will be a stadium without the soul of Mestalla, a field where Lamine Yamal today did whatever he wanted with two goals.

But Barça could not get sentimental. It was necessary to take advantage of Madrid's stumble to keep moving forward and consolidate themselves at the top of the standings already in the first matchdays. With the transfer market closed, Flick knows which cards he has at his disposal. Julián Álvarez is a prisoner in Madrid and his name is being erased from the memory of the barcelonistas, who for the moment worry little about their team's offensive capacity. While waiting to see what a testimonial Gabriel Jesus can contribute in Valencia, the champion strikes its rivals hard and leaves them stunned. Even though they always play with fire in defense, forcing Joan Garcia to be very attentive, Barça wins matches by devouring the morale of their opponents, who usually end up chasing ghosts, praying not to be thrashed.

Flick gave the first start to Rodri, one of those players with such presence and elegance that he seems capable of stopping time whenever he wants. The man from Madrid had a good game, despite an error before the break that nearly ended in a home goal. When he looked up, Rodri saw a white wall, as Valencia started with a five-man defense. But he also saw a lot of teammates moving up and down electrically. Lamine Yamal, who had not trained the day before, was especially sharp. Playing a lot through the middle, behind Raphinha, he had a great time with Fermín. Between the two of them, they deepened the wound of a Valencia team playing under the inquisitorial gaze of its fans. The most radical ones, angry with the board, didn't even enter Mestalla. And the other members spent a good part of the match more focused on the presidential box, where president Kiat Lim was, who was heckled by everyone. The management of the Lims, millionaires from Singapore, is currently a good example of everything you should not do if you buy a football club.

And Barça, in part, benefited from this strange atmosphere, especially after the first goal, a give-and-go between Lamine Yamal and Fermín in which the man from Maresme wanted to leave his name in the golden book of Mestalla with a great chip. Five minutes later, he had already scored the second, but the VAR detected an offside of the kind that is hard to see. The Valencia fans did not celebrate the referee's decision much, aware that it surely only prolonged the agony. And so it was, as shortly after Fermín López culminated a good team play by Barça to make it 0-2. Every Blaugrana attack seemed destined to be a goal, especially a brilliant play by Gordon, who got rid of three rivals with elegance, only to see his shot hit the post after being touched by Dimitrievski.

Neither the heat, which was suffocating the players, nor Danjuma's vertical runs have distracted a Barça that did not even need to offer its best version to make a statement. Nor has the injury to Eric Garcia affected them, as he left the pitch with his face covered in blood after colliding with Rodri inside the rival area. Kounde, his substitute, understood what he had to do on the right, while Xavi Espart continues to demand a spot by playing everywhere. A full-back with the soul of a midfielder in a Barça where position swaps are a constant. Now Gordon drops to the right, now you find him on the other side. Raphinha, more or less the same. A praise of movement, an ambitious, seductive team that could have scored many more goals before the break.

A clever Barça, which understood that it needed to settle the match quickly to be able to turn the game into a formality without much history. And not tire the legs. Said and done. Raphinha scored the 0-3, a fact that ended the little resistance of a Valencia looking like it is facing a season in which it will suffer a lot again. With everything settled, the changes arrived and the debut of a Gabriel Jesus who has already understood that it will be difficult for him to be a starter in a Barça that did what it wanted with a rival turned into a toy. Pedri and Lamine Yamal took advantage of it to turn the last visit to Mestalla into one of the most remembered. A handful of farewell.