Champions League
Is that a no-go? Watch Barcelona’s Luuk de Jong’s incredible double fail
Barcelona lost 0:3 to Benfica and after two rounds are in last place in their Champions League group with zero points and a 0:6 record. Everything could have been different, but Luuk de Jong would have had to convert one of his chances.
Barcelona lost 0:3 to Benfica and after two rounds are in last place in their Champions League group with zero points and a 0:6 record. Everything could have been different, but Luuk de Jong would have had to convert one of his chances.
Barcelona wanted to make amends for their embarrassing 0:3 home defeat to Bayern Munich, but they absolutely failed to do so. In Portugal, they were already behind in the 3rd minute when Nunez sent Benfica into the lead.
However, it could have been level in the 11th minute. Pedri sent Frenkie de Jong into the box with a beautiful cross, who still passed to his namesake Luuk de Jong in front of an empty net. The goalkeeper was no longer in the way, but the Dutch striker mysteriously hit only the returning Benfica defender in the slide.
The second missed chance looked even worse. In the 56th minute, a centre fell through to the far post, where de Jong was standing about a metre from Benfica’s goal. However, he belted the ball just wide of the bar, from which it bounced back into the area.
the 31-year-old striker was thus substituted by Koeman in the 67th minute, with Ansu Fati coming on in his place. But absolutely no one could understand de Jong’s arrival at Barcelona yet. The Dutchman came as a replacement for Griezmann, but even in Sevilla he was not part of the starting line-up, he was more like a second or third striker in the squad.
So Sevilla fans celebrated de Jong’s departure in a big way. Firstly, they got rid of a player whose performance they were not satisfied with at all and they still got paid for him.
Koeman said that de Jong is more dangerous than Neymar when he flies into the box. He wanted to explain why he brought his compatriot to Barcelona.
But the Catalans have always been characterised by combination football, they never practised high centres into the penalty area. And so far, de Jong is relatively lost in Barcelona. Despite this, he has earned a starting lineup with his compatriot Koeman, in which he has started 4 out of the last 5 games.
Source: Twitter, Livesport