The match against Benfica left many parties at fault, despite Barcelona’s remarkable comeback that secured direct qualification to the last 16 of the Champions League.<\/p>\n
However, the four goals conceded and the performance during the first 70 minutes of the match were undeniably negative. In this context, one player was heavily criticized, and his chances of returning to the starting lineup are virtually nonexistent.
\nAccording to information from the Spanish newspaper “El Nacional,” Wojciech Szczesny had a disastrous performance, giving away a penalty and being responsible for another goal due to a hasty exit from his goal.<\/p>\n
The criticism of him quickly surfaced. Furthermore, he had made a significant error in his last match, the Spanish Super Cup final against Real Madrid, where he was sent off with a straight red card. His teammates have since asked Hansi Flick not to rely on him again.<\/p>\n
The players cannot understand the need to rotate goalkeepers when I\u00f1aki Pe\u00f1a has been in excellent form recently. Pe\u00f1a has proven himself worthy of the starting position, dispelling any doubts from last season. He has earned the right to continue as the starting goalkeeper at Camp Nou, and if anyone is still calling for Szczesny to get another chance, his performance in Lisbon confirmed that he is not ready to play.<\/p>\n
The Spanish newspaper also reported that voices within the Catalan dressing room are calling for Szczesny to be excluded from the Barcelona squad until the end of the season, particularly from the duo Olmo and Rafinha.
\nThe two Catalan players do not see any reason to rely on Szczesny as Barcelona’s starting goalkeeper and have expressed concerns about his potentially damaging impact on the team due to his poor form.<\/p>\n
As a result, Szczesny’s time in La Liga is expected to come to an end soon, and he will hang up his gloves in the summer, as he did in 2024, before unexpectedly receiving a call from Flick.
\nSurprisingly, the biggest winner from the Benfica match was I\u00f1aki Pe\u00f1a, even though he did not play. He is now set to be the starting goalkeeper in the upcoming matches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The match against Benfica left many parties at fault, despite Barcelona’s remarkable comeback that secured direct qualification to the last 16 of the Champions League. However, the four goals conceded and the performance during the first 70 minutes of the match were undeniably negative. In this context, one player was heavily criticized, and his chances […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-h-barcelona-english"],"yoast_head":"\n