It’s time to take Xavi‘s team seriously in Europe’s premier league once more after Robert Lewandowski’s hat-trick on his Champions League debut for Barca.
They suddenly appear to be contenders once more after years of humiliating Champions League failures and last year’s embarrassing early exit into the Europa League,
a competition they later failed to have an impact in.
FC Barcelona- Viktoria plzen Played on 09/07/ 2022
Barca knew Bayern would be a far tougher test next Tuesday, but with their former Munich center-forward taking the initiative once more,
they fear no one. Viktoria Plzen gave little resistance.
Now that both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have eight hat-tricks in the Champions League,
Lewandowski is catching up to them. He has six,
and no one has lit up the Camp Nou on a significant European night in such a spectacular way since Messi. Everything passed through him,
and he scored three goals from three shots on goal.
With eight goals in five games, he has failed to reach goals like scoring in Europe,
La Liga, or a hat-trick.
Franck Kessie scored the first goal from a corner,
something Barca hadn’t done since November 2020, and it came from an unexpected place.
After receiving a feed from Sergio Roberto,
Lewandowski swept in the second from just inside the penalty area. The goal marked the Pole’s sixth since joining and his fourth in his past three games. Seventh goal wouldn’t be far behind at all.
Lewandowski headed the ball past Jindrich Stanek
with a header after the exceptional Ousmane Dembele won the ball on the right and sent the ideal cross right-footed.
Due to an injury,
Roberto was replaced by Gerard Pique at halftime,
and Jules Kounde switched to the right back position. It had been a night of atonements, with Jordi Alba, who started the game, and Pique both returning to the Camp Nou field.
Jan Sykora scored a goal for Plzen just before halftime,
and on the 65th minute, Tomas Chory may have further reduced the deficit, but he shot high over the goal. After the miss, he left, making it his final involvement.
Lewandowski scored his third goal after a deft pass from substitute Ferran Torres,
and Barca quickly made it five when the former Manchester City player
scored off of Dembele’s skillfully lofted ball over the top of the visitors’ defence.After his problems with injuries throughout the summer,
Torres needed a goal to rebuild his confidence. With out-of-sorts players starring and those few minutes playing a part, it was victory, win, win for Xavi. Pablo Torre,
19, even made his professional debut.
At least under Xavi, Dembele has never been out of sorts,
and he continues to pay back the coach’s unwavering confidence in him.
On any other night,
his display would have been the highlight of Barcelona’s victory, but Lewandowski will now take centre stage.
He came to Barca with the intention of winning the Champions League, and this empowering victory, sparked by his hat-trick, was the ideal way to get there. Bayern, here we come next week.
Wednesday’s 5-1 victory over Viktoria Plzen by Barcelona saw Robert Lewandowski at the top of his game.
Lewandowski’s arrival to the Blaugrana is already fast dispelling any worries that anyone may have had in the past given his entire history.
The Polish star, who recently joined Barca from Bayern Munich, was outstanding in his first Champions League match, scoring a hat-trick to help Barcelona defeat Viktoria Plzen.
Another recent acquisition, Franck Kessie, and substitute Ferran Torres, who scored and assisted, joined him on the scoreboard.
Lewandowski scores goals regardless of the shirt he is sporting.
His first Champions League victories since moving to Barcelona were three of them in this match. The first was a beautiful finish that was placed precisely in the bottom corner. The next? As a result of Ousmane Dembele’s work,
there is a header on the back post (more on him later). And then a third, another absolutely devastating finish,
came in the second half.
What Lewandowski does is this. He continues to score and then scores even more. Because of this, Barcelona signed him to the team, and their odds of winning this competition are favourable.
With Barcelona in the Champions League,
Robert Lewandowski quickly made his impression.
Lewandowski became the first player to score a hat trick with three different clubs in the Champions League after the team’s opening 5-1 thumping of Viktoria Plzen on Wednesday.
Eight goals have been scored by Barcelona’s greatest offseason acquisition through five games this year. He became the first player in the history of the Champions League to score three hat tricks.
A second newcomer to Barcelona, Frank Kessie, and Ferran Torres both scored goals for the hosts in the Group C meeting at the Camp Nou.
For the Czech Republic club, which had won 10 of its first 12 games this season, the outcome snapped a 34-game streak of victories in competitive games. As of Wednesday, it had 29 wins and 5 ties.
The biggest offseason acquisition for Barcelona now has eight goals after five games this year. He became the first player in the Champions League to score three hat tricks.
Ferran Torres and Frank Kessie, two other Barcelona signings,
also scored goals for the hosts in the Group C match at Camp Nou.
The Czech Republic club, which had won 10 of its first 12 games this season, had gone 34 games without a loss in competitive games prior to the outcome. It had 29 victories and 5 ties going into the game on Wednesday.
