The extremes rejuvenate Messi

Messi celebrates his penalty goal against Ferencvaros.LUIS GENE / AFP

Koeman's Barça also need Messi, even to decant apparently simple games like the one that faced Ferencvaros, a team that had fun for half an hour at the Camp Nou.

The Argentine suddenly appeared, responsible and determined to make a difference, with a play that evoked his best times, when it was the origin and end of Barcelona's goals.

The goal had a therapeutic effect for the young Barça footballers, especially Trincâo and Ansu Fati, willing to expose the veterans and eager to be part of the team led by Messi.

Until the 10th of Barcelona appeared, the match belonged to the 10th of Ferencvaros.

Although he was better disposed because he widened the field on both sides with Sergi Roberto and Dest, Barça started the game in a bad way, lazy and regretful with the ball, as if it missed the environmental load of the Camp Nou on the nights of the Champions League.

The silence was overwhelming and the game was so slow that Nguen had plenty of time to show his quality as 9. The play was beautiful because of the run, the cut and the shot from the ram that left Neto petrified.

Barça was lucky to be offside warned by referee Schärer.

Ferencvaros did not score either afterwards because Isael met the crossbar after an assist from the skilled Nguen.

The Kenyan had fun while Barcelona got bored.

The azulgrana lay down on the court, lacking rhythm and depth, without individual imbalance until Messi appeared.

One of the most genuine, applauded and longed-for versions of the Rosario emerged, as if he were 25 years old and not 33, capable of starting still from the extreme right, dribbling one, two and even three defenders, to finally finish at the near post, impossible for the goal if before there was a defense like Kovacevic.

The defender knocked down 10 and the penalty was transformed by the Barça captain himself.

The goal had to be his because his was a play born out of nowhere many meters from Dibusz's goal.

There was no footballer to move or to blame because the reprimanded Griezmann rested last night.

The goal encouraged Trincâo, the novelty of the day together with Pjanic, and also Ansu Fati.

Ferencvaros felt demanded and the suspense caused by Nguen's diabolical plays is over.

The 2-0 was sung and it did not take long to arrive after an excellent play by De Jong that defined the opportune Fati very well.

Do not rest on the 10th

The young forward was equally delicate and decisive when he enabled Coutinho to make it 3-0.

Ansu Fati's high heel, the culmination of his excellent peripheral vision, was so overwhelming that it even caused Messi to grimace.

Nobody was thinking of resting with a view to Saturday's classic, not even the captain, when the game turned sweet for Barcelona.

The Catalans played less revolutionized than in previous games, when they were convinced that to regain respect they needed to run more than touch and think, an obligatory penance after being buried by the devilish rhythm of Bayern, Roma or Liverpool.

From the interventions of Messi and Ansu Fati, the protagonists with Trincâo and later Pedri and Dembélé, the football of the good ends returned, and also the positional sense, necessary to have the ball and avoid losses, repeated in games with Sevilla and in Getafe.

The Catalans, however, have not yet found a way to control the games, always exposed to any accident, also to an unfortunate play or lack of concentration caused by the long pause at the Camp Nou.

Piqué found himself suddenly behind Nguen's back and from the struggle and grabbing came a penalty and the expulsion of the Barcelona center-back.

A surprising punishment for the Catalans when they led 3-0: they were left with 10 with a good stretch of game to play and Piqué will miss the match against Juve.

The contest became dangerous for Barça and interesting for Rebrov.

But the wheel of changes was won by Koeman: Busquets calmed the Hungarian excitement and Dembélé crowned a gallop with a cross from the baseline that Pedri finished off.

Nobody better than a player without fear, and without a sense of reality like Dembélé to close the game: excellent in the 4-1 and in the 5-1 shot.

The youngsters responded to Messi's invitation to celebrate the return to the Champions League with a thrashing on the way to the Camp Nou classic.

Barça needed goals and all the forwards scored;

a predicament for the absent

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