Young Stars Ferran Torres and Lamine Yamal Lead Barcelona’s Charge Toward a New Era.
It has been some time that Barcelona have had such a season which they’re having this term. While the path is quite tough and there is every possibility they could falter, the Catalan club is still in contention for the treble. However, along with the brilliance of Hansi Flick, the youngsters are delievering tremendous performances day after day.
La Blaugrana recently qualified for the Copa del Rey final after defeating Atletico Madrid in the semis. In this match, Ferran Torres scored the only goal which thrusted La Blaugrana to the final after three years. It was Lamine Yamal who bagged the assist. The duo partnered up several times in the match to threaten the opponents inside the box.
Ferran’s season may have begun with some inconsistent performances this term. However, he has improved significantly and deserved a start in the semi-final. Talking about Ferran starting the game, coach Hansi Flick said:
“Ferran is performing very well and responding well, and he’s been very important in the Copa del Rey, which is why he’s a starter.”
Having drawn 4-4 in the first leg against Atleti, this match was a do-or-die for both teams. On top of it, the match was being held at the Metropolitano Stadium which has been a fort of Atleti this season. Hence, starting Ferran instead of Robert Lewandowski does give out the message that the coach considers him as the future of the club.
Lewandowski is running for the Pichichi this season with 25 goals in La Liga. Even so, at 36 years of age, he needs enough rest days due to such clustered schedule. Ferran is learning a lot from Lewandowski as well. The duo have partnered up and delivered several times this season.
The duo have been on the field 20 times this season. In that time, they’ve contributed to a whopping 27 goals and 3 assists. Individually, Ferran has upped his gameplay to such a level recently that he now has a 81 minutes per goal – goal-to-minute ratio. Lamine Yamal has also been one of the key players that helped Ferran.
Every Barcelona fan has been looking at Yamal as a possible successor for Lionel Messi at the club. It seems, their hopes and aspirations are not exactly far-fetched regarding the 17-year-old. Similar to Messi, his dribbling has started to cause trouble the opponents. Added to that, he’s starting to establish a dominance with dribbling numbers as well.
So far this season, Yamal holds the highest number of successful dribbles (114). Jeremy Doku is in second place with 88 successful dribbles, 26 fewer than the youngster. However, it’s not just his dribbles, but also his vision, that’s improving like fine wine. His assist for Ferran’s goal in the Copa del Rey semi-final second leg serves as evidence for that.
He saw past three defenders and Fermin Lopez who’s also proved a talent in front of goal towards Ferran coming in fast from the left to cut into the middle of the box. With the brilliant pass that cut through everyone to reach a spot where Ferran needed to show his brilliance in finishing to gently direct the ball towards the far post with the goalkeeper coming in too close to him to be able to stop anything.
Seeing Messi-esque moves as such from such a young lad has become a regular occurrence now. Now, with both Ferran and Lamine, not to omit other young talents in the team, like Pedri with his Iniesta-like skills and control and Gavi showing mastery in the midfield, while Alejandro Balde and Pau Cubarsi becoming a fort at the back, Barcelona’s future seems secure.
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