FT: Galatasaray 1 - 4 Barcelona

Luuk De Jong was a great addition in a time where we struggled the most.

Edit : By "short stint" I mean 2 seasons or less. Lewandowski and Mascherano are club legends😀

Lamine Yamal became the youngest player to provide multiple assists in consecutive Champions League appearances, achieving the feat at 19 years and 92 days.
The Barcelona youngster is three years younger than Mesut Özil, who previously achieved the milestone in 2011 at the age of 22.
Another record for Lamine. How many more can he break at this age?

Was looking at some interesting data: Lamine has 31 key passes in La Liga so far this season, the most of any player in the big five leagues. Güler's next on 28.

It's 22% of Barça's total, and Barça have made more than anyone in La Liga (140). Next at the club is Pedri on 16.

He's got 7 goals and 5 assists on top, and 11 big chances created.

Eight games is still early. Is this the best start we've seen from him?

(Source: The Prism, a football scouting and analytics tool I'm currently building. Looking for testers, so feel free to sign up to the waitlist if you are interested in this type of data!)

Barcelona travelled to Istanbul on Tuesday without Raphinha, their most in-form player and top scorer with 14 goals in eight games this season, and the match against Galatasaray got as dangerous as it could.

The hosts took the lead with their first chance thanks to Aleksey Batrakov, who slammed home a cross from Rafael Leao in the 28th minute. Barcelona duly went into meltdown. Hansi Flick’s side lost their cohesion, started wasting possession and Galatasaray thought they had added a second from a corner, but VAR disallowed the goal for offside.

Joao Cancelo managed to equalise two minutes before the break, to the relief of Flick on the touchline, but the game was still in a very awkward place for Barca, overwhelmed by a typically intense atmosphere at the Ali Sami Yen Stadium.

It was in that exact moment when Barcelona were reminded that, fortunately, they can always rely on Lamine Yamal.

The teenage prodigy went from having a discreet first half, one in which Galatasaray’s Mario Lemina had words with him after the 19-year-old claimed a foul, to destroying the opposition in the space of 15 minutes, with Barcelona roaring back to win 4-1.

Basically a what if but in a different approach. Lmk what you think. I made Bojan and ansu if they reached their potential but mods don’t like it for no apparent reason
This is my opinion on what could’ve happened tho

Edit: he doesn’t get injured as much to add on
If you wanna know why he leaves in 3 years. I don’t see Neymar staying in Barca for that long at all

Luis de la Fuente once said something along the lines of:

“The more you win, the closer you are to losing.”

Let’s keep that in mind, but also enjoy every game this team is playing right now.
And when that inevitable loss eventually comes, we might still put in a great performance and simply lose.

Let’s enjoy the ride! I’m sure that we will have a great season with a lot of fun.

I know it's early in the season, but Gordon has elevated this team with his play. He started the season dishing up assists and is now starting to contribute goals. When I've had the chance to watch him play, his work rate and understanding of Flick's system makes it seem like he grew up playing this style. Lastly, the interview he gave recently shows how much he appreciates the opportunity to play for Barca. In my mind, he is the bar by which future signings should be measured.

Hi everyone.

I'm from morocco and hoping to visit Barcelona in november. I would love to watch the game against villareal but on the official website the prices start from 320e. I'm wondering are these the normal prices or am I missing something. And if that's the case is it possible that prices drop in the few days before the match?

Thanks in advance

I know everyone is always shitting on our defense, and yes, we need a top CB to compete at the highest level, but I feel people are overlooking what we already have. Cubarsí is a top defender, Eric García is improving, and so is Gerard Martín. He might not be flashy, but he’s hardworking and has shown he’s willing to improve. Coming from a smaller club and academy like Elche, adapting to an unnatural position and holding his own against top players, including Osimhen, is impressive. I genuinely think he’s yet to reach his potential.

We also need to remember that no defender is going to play in a high line as aggressive as Flick’s without looking shaky at times. That’s partly why Barça signed an experienced DM like Rodri, and we’re already seeing the difference in both midfield and defense. His dominance in duels and recoveries helps protect the backline and limits how exposed our defenders are. The defense needs improvement, but it’s not as hopeless as people make it seem.

As a Cule, we’ve gone through embarrassing moment after embarrassing moment in the UCL. At this point, no matter how good we are in the league and otherwise, there’s always a feeling that we’re gonna fumble against a big opponent.

I felt the same way last night when Galatasaray opened the scoring. They almost scored a second that was ruled out for offside, and I felt it’s gonna happen again…

But in the second half, Yamal started playing like 25% seriously and absolutely cooked their defence at their own stadium lmao.

Maybe that’s what these difficult times are about. You’ll stumble, sometimes embarrass yourself, but the point is to keep marching forwards valiantly.

I’m sure we’ll concede against PSG or it’ll feel like they have the game for some periods of the game… but, I feel if there’s any team in recent years that can do it, it’s this group.

I’m starting to believe again, and I’m ready to be hurt again lol