Xavi Espart's great luck (and great talent): the hot notes from Barça-Athletic

BarcelonaSolid victory for Barça in the second league match. The Blaugranas got rid of a very defensive Athletic Club with two goals from Raphinha and Fermín. Unai Simón prevented a rout. Next, some quick notes.

Raphinha, like Ronaldo. With the Julián Álvarez saga thankfully nearing its end after Atlético de Madrid's umpteenth rejection of Barça's intentions, Raphinha continues to show that, if necessary, he is ready to be the center forward for this Barça. The tendency to get injured is the only asterisk that should worry about the Brazilian. He fulfills the rest of the skills required of an offensive reference with flying colors. He is the first to press, he has a shot, he understands spaces, and he is quite good in the air. Against Athletic, he opened the scoring with a goal in the purest Ronaldo style (Nazario, not Cristiano). He broke free behind the center-backs, faced Unai Simón, and made him fall with a dribble before beating him into an empty net. Lewandowski scored many goals, but it is much more modern to play with a mobile striker.

Pedri, like De la Peña. The 1-0 was a tribute to Robson's Barça, a team that didn't win major titles but had good moments and great players. If Raphinha acted like Ronaldo before scoring, Pedri was reminiscent of De la Peña when assisting his teammate. He beat eight rivals, eight, with just one touch of the ball into space, as The bare one when he was in his prime. If the Canary plays near the opponent's area, these things can happen more often. That is why it is so important for Rodri to establish himself as the starting pivot for this Barça. It will be a shame for Bernal, who has played two very good league matches, but as long as the Madrid-born player is doing well, he will have to adapt to being another midfielder in the rotation. The successful blend of the Pedri-Rodri double is one of Flick's biggest challenges.

The find of the summer. German seal for a Barça full of local products. Seven Catalans populated the lineup, including Xavi Espart, who once again got ahead of Balde and Cancelo at left-back. The young player from Maresme, a full-fledged first-team player, is this summer's big surprise. A winger with an inside midfielder's soul, a physique similar to Xavi (Hernández), and a silent, hardworking spirit close to that of Gerard Martín or Sergi Roberto. Espart is very good, but he has the best context to not be out of place in his first steps as a professional. He arrives in a group that knows what it's doing and knows how to communicate. Great find. He smiles as Casadó and Fort, sculpted like him at La Masia, end their days at Barça with sour faces. That's football.

Tebas doesn't like it. In his first term, Laporta invented the gazpacho night to play against Sevilla in the early morning due to a federative mess in the offices. Impossible not to remember that great goal by Ronaldinho... 23 years later, in his third term, the Barça president continues to use football to send messages to the world. This time, the mess was created by the National Police in Elche with a brutal beating of a minor member who was carrying an Estelada flag. Barça has shared the indignation of thousands of Catalans with the sequence by hosting a worldwide exhibition of Estelada flags. Everyone saw it except for the match production under the tutelage of La Liga, an entity directed by a former member of Fuerza Nueva. No surprise. Luckily, in 2026 there are smartphones.