Joao Felix helped Barca win big in the Champions League
At Montjuic Stadium - Barca's home stadium this season, while waiting for the new Camp Nou stadium to be built, Xavi's team dominated with 70% ball control, finishing 22 times with nine shots on target - compared to 3 and 1 of guest.
Felix - after scoring his first goal for Barca in the 5-0 win over Betis in La Liga on September 17 - became the team's hero in yesterday's win over Antwerp. In 68 minutes on the field, Felix only finished two shots and had one keypass (decisive pass), but concretized all three situations into two goals and one assist.
Felix was once thought to have run out of development potential at Atletico Madrid and only came to Barca at the end of the last summer market on loan. But yesterday's top performance helped him score 9.5 points on Whoscored - the highest in the match. The UEFA technical subcommittee also recognized Felix's great professional contribution to Barca by awarding him the Best Player of the Match award.
Felix's first goal came in the 11th minute and was also the goal that opened the victory for Barca. In a rhythmic burst in front of the penalty area, the striker wearing shirt number 14 received a pass from Ilkay Gundogan, turned the ball to his right foot and then shot low towards the near corner, leaving goalkeeper Jean Butez rooted to the spot.
Nine minutes later, Felix continued to leave his mark with a cross to the far post for Robert Lewandowski to double the gap. Thanks to that, he became the fourth Barca player to both score and assist in his Champions League debut since the 2003-2004 season, after Maxi Lopez, Sergio Busquets and Ferran Torres.
Meanwhile, Antwerp is the 33rd club that Lewandowski has scored against in the Champions League - a number only inferior to Karim Benzema (34), Cristiano Ronaldo (38) and Lionel Messi (40). At 35 years and 29 days, the Polish striker also became the oldest Barca player to score in the Champions League, surpassing Gerard Pique in the match against Dynamo Kyiv in 2021 at 34 years and 260 days.
In the 22nd minute, it was Raphinha's turn to speak when she drifted left and crossed the ball, hitting defender Jelle Bataille into the net. The goal was counted as an own goal by Bataille. At the beginning of the second half, from a chaotic situation in the penalty area, the ball reached Gavi's feet for the Spanish midfielder to score into the roof of the away team's net, increasing the score to 4-0.
The goal party at Montjuic ended in the 66th minute, when Raphinha crossed to the far post for Felix to head into the empty net, completing the double and setting the score 5-0. Felix became the second Barca player to contribute to three goals (two goals, one assist) in his Champions League debut since the 2003-2004 season, after Robert Lewandowski with a hat-trick in the match against Viktoria Plzen in 2022.
Two minutes later, Xavi took Felix off the field and replaced him with Lamine Yamal. At 16 years and 68 days old, Yamal is the second youngest player to make his Champions League debut, after Youssoufa Moukoko with Dortmund at the age of 16 years and 18 days.
Barca got off to a perfect start in the Champions League - where they aimed to pass the group stage for the first time since parting ways with legendary Lionel Messi. In the last two seasons, with Xavi on the bench, Barca both stopped from the Champions League group stage. In the 2021-2022 season, the team finished third in the group stage and had to drop to the Europa League - where they lost to Eintracht Frankfurt with a total score of 3-4 in the quarterfinals. A similar scenario took place last season, when Barca continued to finish third in the group stage, then lost 3-4 to Man Utd in the Europa League play-offs.
For the second time in a row, Barca won 5-0, after crushing Betis in round five of La Liga last weekend. On September 23, Xavi and his team continued to play in Montjuic against Celta, then marched to Mallorca's stadium on September 26 in La Liga.
