The most exuberant Barça dances in the rain

BarcelonaHappiness has settled at the Camp Nou. Fans enter with the same excitement that children have when arriving at an amusement park, aware that they have a date with magic. For the older ones, watching this team allows us to forget for a while all the problems that us mortals carry on our shoulders. Seeing this Barça in action is a joy. A treat for the eyes. A team that goes on scoring against rivals with such ease that one might think it is easy. But no, it is not. Only Barça knows how to do it like this. And to think that not long ago, the debate was who would score the goals that Lewandowski used to score. And it turns out that without the Pole, the club has an offensive surplus, Raphinha has statistics worthy of Messi, and even Joao Cancelo scores goals two by two. At the Camp Nou, the goals fall as naturally as the rain, which also made an appearance.

Barça is so hungry that more than one fan felt a touch of pity seeing how the Racing de Santander players suffered locked in defense, distressed, bailing water as best they could. The Cantabrian team, an old acquaintance that awakens memories of other decades, returned to the Camp Nou after years in the purgatory of the lower divisions. And it was hurt, in this return. It only had five minutes of glory, when it took a step forward and scored a goal. But its hope lasted as briefly as the life of a butterfly. In the blink of an eye. They were destined to be a new victim of this Blaugrana steamroller that wins every 50-50 ball, recovers the ball very quickly and moves it at high speed. A delightful game with which Flick's players move across the pitch as if it were a stage and they were dancers. A praise of movement, modern football that never stops improving.

And this, despite the fact that Flick had made rotations and had started without Cubarsí, for example. In attack, it was the explosive Adeyemi who was part of the offensive trident alongside Lamine Yamal and Raphinha. And the Bavarian had a blast with his game, a mix of power and talent that shattered the visiting defense every time he attacked. Adeyemi ensures being able to have two wingers, open flanks, generate space and terrify the opponents, since if they put two men on Lamine, they leave the German alone. Bad business.

Pending the rain

The match, which arrived marked by the fear of a new deluge, as had happened on the day of Feyenoord, saw the goals arrive before the storm. In 45 minutes, Barça scored four goals that could have been five, since Lamine Yamal missed a penalty just before the break. Just as it happened to a young Messi years ago, the genius from Rocafonda also has not yet mastered the art of the penalty. On the other hand, he controls other aspects of the game to perfection. If Lamine doesn't score, however, it doesn't seem serious. His teammates will do it.

Rodri and Pedri were in charge of steering a Barça in which Dani Olmo felt quite comfortable between the lines, connecting with ease with the attacking trident. The first goal, however, was scored by Joao Cancelo, a hero that no one expected, with a very violent long-range shot that surprised Agirrezabala. Shortly after, Raphinha received a penalty and scored it himself in a phase of the game in which it seemed impossible that Racing could say anything. But in football, anything can happen. And Maguette, in an isolated action, beat Joan Garcia. Racing, emboldened, put in two crosses, but it was a flash in the pan. Cancelo returned to claim his share of glory with a similar second goal with another long-range shot that put an end to the visiting reaction.

Barça, chastened by their suffering in the final minutes at Levante's field, scored their fourth thanks to a Raphinha who has goals falling out of his pockets. Against Racing, Flick's team almost scored five goals in just 45 minutes. But Lamine Yamal saw Agirrezabala save the penalty that Raphinha had given him. The Brazilian looks after the genius from Rocafonda as if he were his big brother and wanted him to be the author of the fifth goal. He didn't manage to, but he did have time to score one, the last of the match.

Barça had finished the job in the first half, just before the arrival of the storm. In a match where more than once the ball had to be changed because it didn't have enough pressure, as if it were wearing out from Barça touching it so much, Flick brought on Szczęsny at halftime because Joan Garcia had hurt himself in an unimportant action, looking for a ball off the pitch. And the Pole, an atypical character who lives in his own world, did not start on the right foot: he gifted the second goal to Racing in an unforgivable error that remained an anecdote, since shortly after Adeyemi forced a new penalty which Raphinha converted. The third goal for the Brazilian, the true leader of a team that has scored five or more goals in five of the seven matches played.

Because Gabriel Jesús was in charge of scoring the sixth, showing that he also has hunger and wants to take advantage of every second he has to push for his place. And Adeyemi, who has already understood who he has to help, did not stop until he managed to get Lamine to score his goal, the seventh. They celebrated together in the rain. Playing like children when they can jump in puddles of water. Adeyemi, with his spectacular play, has already won the affection of a stadium where everything seems to be going very well. At the Camp Nou, everything is exuberant, exaggerated. Both the play and the goals and the rain.