Three questions and three answers from Cadiz 0-1 Barcelona

A Joao Felix overhead kick gifted Barcelona three points at Nuevo Mirandilla last night when the team took on Cadiz on Matchday 31 of La Liga.

The Portuguese star dished up the iconic goal eight minutes before the half-time whistle, and the team held on resiliently for close to an hour to take home the win.

Xavi’s side are now eight points behind leaders Real Madrid with seven games to go. Their next game in the league is against Los Blancos, and they will have the chance to cut the deficit to five on the night.

The manager does not have many negatives to take away from last night’s game, especially considering that their decisive UCL clash is just under three days away.

Barça Universal brings you three questions and three answers from Cadiz 0-1 Barcelona.

Three answers

Would Xavi shuffle his deck?

Barcelona’s primary focus at this point in the season is on the UEFA Champions League, for the European competition gives them the best chance of lifting silverware.

With the quarterfinal second leg against Paris Saint-Germain just around the corner and just a narrow one-goal lead on aggregate, Xavi rightly opted to rotate his squad almost entirely and give his starters a rest.

Barcelona thus showed wholesale changes on the night, right from defence, where Andreas Christensen replaced Ronald Araujo beside Pau Cubarsi. Hector Fort took Jules Kounde’s place at right-back while Marcos Alonso started at left-back.

The midfield was entirely rotated as well, with Sergi Roberto, Oriol Romeu and Fermin Lopez starting on the night. Notably, it was the first game of the season where Ilkay Gundogan did not participate.

In attack, Xavi deployed Joao Felix and Ferran Torres on the left and right wings respectively while Vitor Roque took Robert Lewandowski’s place in the centre.

Could Barcelona hold on with a makeshift defence?

The single most important department behind Barcelona’s subpar first half of the season was their compromised defence.

Despite boasting of…

Source link : https://barcauniversal.com/three-questions-and-three-answers-from-cadiz-0-1-barcelona/

Author : Adithya Eshwarla

Publish date : 2024-04-14 08:13:27

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