A Comeback Bigger than the Super Bowl? Greenwood Students React to Barcelona’s Stunning Victory
Sergi Roberto, center, celebrates after scoring the winning goal for Barcelona in stoppage time on Wednesday
March 22, 2017
On Feb. 14, 2017, Barcelona suffered a humiliating 4-0 defeat in Paris against Paris St.-Germain (PSG), one of the top opponents in the world.
A few days after the match, Luis Enrique, Barcelona’s manager, confirmed he would be leaving at the end of the season, saying the job had “exhausted” him.
The current Barcelona team has dominated European soccer for the past decade, winning the champions league four times in 2006, 2009, 2011, and 2015. The team has been present in the semi-finals of the league for the past seven years.
The defeat against PSG seemed to mark an end of an era as the squad was aging. Several of the main leaders and players on the team had already departed, such as Xavi Hernandez and Carles Puyol. More players are nearing an older age for a soccer player. Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, and Sergio Busquets are all nearing 30; Andres Iniesta and Gerard Pique are beyond it.
Barcelona no longer seemed to be the team it once was as many of its fans started doubting the team.
Barcelona would need the score of their next game against Paris St.-Germain to be at least 4-0 to at best tie according to the aggregate score.
The aggregate score is in which two teams play each other twice. Each team plays an away and a home game. The aggregate score is when the score of the two games are essentially combined. If the score is tied, the team that scored more goals while away is the winner. This is known as the “away goal” rule.
After the 4-0 loss while away in Paris, making a comeback seemed exceptionally unlikely when, in soccer, only an average of two goals are scored per game. No team in the combined history of the Champions League and the European Cup had ever overcome a four-goal deficit. The defeat seemed to mark a close to a chapter of Barcelona’s history.
On March 8, 2017, Barcelona seemed to defy all odds and stun the world when they played PSG in the second game.
At just the three-minute mark, Suarez was able to net a goal giving Barcelona hope and starting eventually what would become a historic match. At the end of the first half, Iniesta forced an own goal, making the score 2-0, but 4-2 on aggregate.
Then, at the 50 minute mark, Messi was able to convert a penalty kick, making the score 3-0 and 4-3 on aggregate, proving the phrase “Where there is Messi, there is hope,” truer than ever, as the front pages of one of the city’s sports daily publications had it.
Barcelona was just one goal away and victory was in sight, but within a split second hope didn’t seem to exist anymore when Edinson Cavani scored for PSG. Everyone thought it was over. Even if Barcelona was able to tie, PSG would still win by the “away goal” rule.
With about 10 minutes left in the game, the aggregate score was still 5-3. As the match came to a close, the crowd’s excitement began to die down until the 88 minute mark when Neymar bent a free-kick into the top left corner. Then, two minutes later, Neymar was able to convert a penalty kick and consequently tie the score.
With the score tied once again, hope, excitement, and energy was thriving in the team as they hoped to make what seemed to be the impossible possible. As the final minutes of the game played out, Barcelona surged forward with all its players hoping to score a last-minute goal.
Even goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen was all the way up the field trying to score when the unlikely hero, Sergio Roberto, scored for Barcelona to complete one of the most historic comebacks in soccer and sports history.
Ivan Rakitic, a midfielder, described the game as the club’s “Super Bowl” moment, with Neymar taking the part of Tom Brady. It was Neymar whose free kick, with five minutes to play, gave Barcelona its fourth goal; it was Neymar whose nerveless penalty, as the game went into stoppage time, set up the grand finale.
The game seemed to shake all of Europe and quite possibly the world. Even students here at Greenwood High School had things to say about the game.
Eric Sanchez, a freshman soccer player said, “I thought the comeback was bigger than the Super Bowl because something like that has never happened before.”
To some, the greatness of the comeback even seemed to dull the Super Bowl into nonexistence within their minds. Ellie Belcher, also a freshman soccer player said, “Considering I don’t even remember the Super Bowl … I would say it was a much better comeback and more historic.”
Barcelona will play Juventus on April 11 in the Champions League quarter-finals.
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