Images via @FCBarcelona, @ASRomaEN, @PrzemekSzyszka and @juventusfcen on Twitter
The playoff rounds of the Europa League and Conference League wrapped up last night, and we saw big ties with Robert Lewandowski, Nicola Zalewski and more reach their conclusion. Read on to find out more:
Wojciech Szczęsny - Nantes 0-3 Juventus
Szczęsny had nothing to do in this game, much like in the first leg, with the only difference this time being in that he didn’t need to pick the ball out the back of his net. Juventus approached this game with a level of maturity they hadn’t shown in the first leg, and proceedings were certainly helped by a stunning opening strike from Angel Di Maria, who bagged a hat-trick.
It was good news also for Arek Milik who was missing through injury, although it’s likely he’ll be back in time for the next round as Juve go through to the last 16 of the Europa League.
Jakub Piotrowski - Anderlecht 2-1 Ludogorets
Having missed the first leg, Jakub Piotrowski returned to a resilient Ludogorets side that had triumphed in the home leg. This game was much different, with Anderlecht wanting to prove a point and progress to the next round of the Conference League. Piotrowski helped Ludogorets in what was a disciplined battle. He was shown a yellow card towards the mid-point of the first half for taking out his frustrations at a marginal refereeing decision on the ball, which the officials viewed fairly as dissent.
In many ways a back and forth kind of game but one in which the home side were certainly stronger, Piotrowski and his teammates really dug in and forced the game into extra time. Only seven minutes in to the additional half hour, and Piotrowski received his second yellow for a fairly soft foul, and his side were down to ten. Ludogorets still took the game to penalties, where they henceforth missed every one they took and lost 3-0.
Robert Lewandowski - Manchester United 2-1 Barcelona
After a scintillating first leg, the second leg had much to live up to and in many ways was not as pulse-pounding an encounter. The home side were particularly poor in the first half, and Bruno Fernandes gave away a penalty when he was adjudged to have pulled back Alejandro Balde. Lewandowski stepped up to take and just about beat David De Gea to score his first goal against Man United in his career in what was only his second ever game against them.
The first half then continued with Barca raining down chances on the United goal, but failing to take any of them. This cost them dearly, as United were better in the second half and turned the game and the tie on its head. Lewandowski had a late chance cleared off the line by Raphael Varane, and Barcelona were sent out of European competition.
In my opinion it was yet another display of the shortcomings of this Barcelona side, who have certainly been shown up in Europe with elements of tactical naivety and a steadfast approach of sticking to their principles, even when it yields no rewards. I can’t understand why Lewandowski, for whom they nigh-on bankrupted themselves to acquire, rarely has chances created for him. Raphinha seems to finally be coming good, although perhaps not to the level expected, but he often tries to do it all by himself, a trait which seems to pervade all the wing-play at Barcelona this season. Most of the chances Lewandowski gets this season have been thanks to Pedro or Gavi, and given they were both missing last night it’s not a hugely surprising result.
Lewy is not without blame himself: some of his touches were poor and perhaps he could’ve struck the ball a little harder so that Varane was not able to clear off the line at the death, but once Ferran Torres and Ansu Fati came on Lewandowski had to do it all himself in the attacking areas, with the most help he had all night coming from Frenkie De Jong.
There’s been a lot of blame this morning by Barcelona’s online fanbase put squarely on the shoulders of Lewandowski, which doesn’t surprise me. When your club spends that kind of money on someone coming to the end of their career, you expect immediate results. The fact that Barcelona are set to win La Liga for the first time since 2019 is in no small part thanks to the contributions of Lewandowski, but Barca have been thoroughly embarrassed in European competition. They have at times been unlucky with officiating, but to place the blame solely on marginal decisions going against them is to overlook the problems that Xavi’s tactics have been exposed to by European sides.
Barcelona have been defensively sound in La Liga and this has allowed them to be wasteful up front, Lewandowski at times included. This was not the case in either the Champions League or Europa League, when they were opened up time and time again.
The most frustrating thing from a fairly neutral perspective is that Barcelona actually looked far more threatening when crossing the ball into the box for Lewy to either head on to someone else or go for goal himself, but it seems Xavi is reluctant to resort to these tactics for obvious aesthetic reasons.
Nicola Zalewski - Roma 2-0 RB Salzburg
Roma and Zalewski were unlucky in the first leg, with Salzburg scoring against the run of play towards the end of the game and Zalewski having the chances he created for Roma’s strikers thoroughly wasted.
This was not true of last night; Roma put in one of their best displays of the season in the first half, and Zalewski was no exception. Every Roma player was an 8/10, and Zalewski had a solid 80 minutes where he played almost without fault.
Lech Poznań 1-0 Bodo/Glimt
After surviving their trip to the Arctic Circle, Lech were hopeful coming back to Bułgarska for the second leg of the tie. The first half was an incredibly poor spectacle, with the only chance coming at the end of the first 45 when Filip Szymczak fired a speculative shot across goal which Michał Skóraś could not slide in to convert.
The second half saw the visitors have more of a go, and a glaring miss from about ten yards out by Bodo festered belief that it might be Lech’s night.
Indeed it was, as Joel Pereira played a clever cross in front of the defence which captain Mikael Ishak turned home. John van den From then had his side shut up shop at Lech will be representing Poland in European competition for at least one more round of the Conference League.
This is really encouraging for Polish football, as Lech are getting further than any other team in recent memory. It may well all end in the next round, but the progress being made by Lech in Europe will encourage other Polish clubs like Raków Częstochowa that they can do similar next season, if they get there.
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