Barcelona regained its smile in Seville. The Cursed City, the one in which he had lost the last three finals he played (the last one exactly three months ago), was this April 17 talisman for a team that went above the same Athletic that in January went defeat the Super Cup and gave it to Joan Laporta the first great joy since he came to the club presidency.
Ronald Koeman, Whose ears had to be whistled when his line-up was announced, with Dembélé’s dismissal, he won superbly all the credit that some people continue to deny him every day and proving that he doesn’t feel ‘this board has managed to get the best out of an orphaned center-forward squad, surviving the worst moments of the season and reaching the final stretch of the course with a trophy under his arm and, at least with all the hopes of fighting the League to the end.
“We were really looking forward to winning again and we did it against a great rival. We played a great game and I’m happy for everyone, the players, the coaching staff and our fans,” the president revealed, happily, proclaiming that “Barcelona has not held a title for a long time and it is time to celebrate it”.
Celebrating it did without disguising a Barcelona that three months ago, in the same stadium of La Cartoixa, lost a final at the time of the most delicate case of the season, from when its growth, which had already begun to the League, was indisputable. With the cross of PSG and until the defeat in Valdebebas the improvement of the azulgrana equipment has been a constant to arrive in the middle of April, as always it proclaimed Johan Cruyff, aspiring to gain titles.
He got the first and was catapulted in his mind to focus on the remaining eight finals until the end of an exciting league that is understood to have to fight with Real and Atletico Madrid, full of confidence and taking for granted that the time of depression is over.
Happiness is drawn once again in a Barça that awaiting the decision of Messi still the final stretch of the season with pride recovered. In times of pandemic, the joy was finally complete.
For Athletic … Follow the desert crossing. Defeated in 2009, 2012 and 2015 by Barça, he fell again, and thrashed, in front of the same team against which he won, back in 1984, his last Cup title. There was no possible excuse for the lions. They were simply run over by a rival who overtook him in football and goals.