Joao Cancelo stood on the LED boards with ears cupped, asking for a reaction louder than what he had heard at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium. Maybe this is a new habit for Barcelona at their temporary home, a squat arena lacking the size and imposing feel of Camp Nou. For, at the weekend against Mallorca, Lamine Yamal had done the same after scoring with a peach of a curler.
![Napoli's Juan Jesus, left, tries to block a shot by Barcelona's Lamine Yamal during the Champions League, round of 16, second leg(AP) Napoli's Juan Jesus, left, tries to block a shot by Barcelona's Lamine Yamal during the Champions League, round of 16, second leg(AP)](https://www.hindustantimes.com/ht-img/img/2024/03/13/550x309/Spain-Soccer-Champions-League-52_1710333962483_1710333988322.jpg)
Ah Yamal! Cushioned by the outstep, the ball seems an extension of his left foot. Early in the second leg of the pre-quarter final against Napoli, which Barcelona won 3-1 and the tie 4-2 on aggregate to make the Champions League quarter-final for the first time in four seasons, Yamal cut in, turned and sped past Marco Rui, making the left-back look old. He is only 32 but that is double Yamal’s age.
Forced into committing a foul, Rui put a comforting hand on Yamal. It is the kind of cynical challenge the Barcelona and Spain wide right will have to live with for years. After Barcelona had scored twice in two minutes through Fermin Lopez and Cancelo, Yamal turned in a way the knees of Rui and Hamed Traore – at 24, he was eight years older than his opponent on the night – couldn’t cope.
This felt so fitting in a game between clubs whose souls will forever be linked to Diego Maradona.
With a bit of luck, Yamal could have got his first Champions League goal for 2023-24 but his left-footer, after opening his body, didn’t bend enough after one was ruled out for being off-side. Yamal played a part in the second goal, driving inside and finding Raphinha whose shot rebounded off the upright for Cancelo to do the rest.
Two minutes earlier, Barcelona had scored through Lopez after Robert Lewandowski sold a dummy that opened the route to goal for this 20-year-old who said ‘thank you’ with a calm, confident finish. Amir Rrahmani finished a move he started in the 30th minute and Napoli had their moments but those quick goals tilted a tie evenly poised at kick-off.
And just to be sure, in the 83rd minute, Lewandowski put the finishing touches to a slick move also involving Ilkay Gündogan and Sergi Roberto for his 13th goal in his last 13 Champions League knockout matches.
“It had been four years since this club was where it deserves to be. We have to enjoy this moment,” Roberto said, as per AP. “Today we showed that this team is prepared to compete in Europe,” Barcelona manager Xavi said.
Exactly how prepared Barcelona are will be known in April. And whom they meet will be decided on Friday. Teams are unlikely to let them off for the kind of error Oriol Romeu made when he played to Napoli’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, so stiffer challenges are likely. Barcelona are confident they can meet with a group of young players such as Yamal, Lopez and
17-year-old Pau Cubarsi, who was adjudged Player-of-the-Match. Cubarsi set the move for the first goal going but the manner in which he found Lopez earlier with a perfectly weighted pass that travelled almost 40 yards arcing over Napoli players showed his class.
The way Cubarsi had stopped Mallorca’s big forwards Cyle Larin and Vedat Muriqi got Xavi to gush that
he doesn’t look 17. He proved that again with a mature defensive performance against a frontline led by Victor Osimhen.
“His sudden emergence is wonderful for Barcelona and Spanish football – we’re looking at a top-level defender for years to come,” AFP quoted Xavi as saying after the win.
Yamal is rangy and Cubarsi well-built but both could add muscle to their unquestionable magic. The Mallorca coach, Javier Aguirre, was part of Mexico’s squad in the 1986 World Cup, a tournament Maradona owned. At the weekend, he compared Yamal to Lionel Messi when they were the same age. This is the first time since Messi’s departure that five-time winners
Barcelona are in the Champions League quarter-finals. Klopp’s kids, Gary Neville’s words, have won a clutch of games and deserved every word of praise. Their hand similarly forced by injuries, so have Barcelona. Like Liverpool’s Jürgen Klopp, Xavi is leaving at the end of the season and their impending departures seem to have galvanized the teams.
To the young players mentioned above, add Pedri, Gavi and Marc Guiu, meaning Barcelona have “juvenil” players who can get them dreaming. Again. Yamal, Kubarsi and Guiu are from Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy as are Gavi and Alejandro Balde. Seven players in the squad for 2023-24 are from La Masia. The future’s not bad, Gündogan had said at an interaction with journalists from Asia-Pacific region last week.
Freddie Adu, Bojan Krkic, Theo Walcott, Jesse Lingaard, Adnan Januzaj, the list of promising players who didn’t live up to potential is long. Social media doesn’t make it any easier, said Gündogan, pointing out that it wasn’t so much of a distraction for his generation. Like Michael Owen, their careers can also be derailed by injury; Pedri and Gavi, who missed Tuesday’s game, would know, as would Ansu Fati, loaned by Barca to Brighton. Explains why Krkic, now part of Barcelona’s staff, said Yamal’s first target this season should be to finish school.