PRAGUE (Jordi Blanco, ESPN Digital) – Ter Stegen. For active and passive. Uppercase and magnificent. Stellar in a first part exquisite and perfect in a second outstanding. Through him it is understood that the most vulgar Barça of the season took a golden victory in Prague, beating 1-2 a Slavia that deserved more luck.

Barça shouted for the arrival of rest in the first half and begged for the end of the game in the second. Surpassed in all orders, lost in the field and cornered in a bad way, he turned the great game of last Saturday in Eibar into a real calamity. Incomprehensible.

And that began as a cyclone Barça, pressing to the limit, with all the advanced lines and overwhelming a Slavia that, suddenly, was below on the scoreboard. Messi recovered a ball in the three quarters of the field, combined, went to the penalty spot and there waited for Arthur’s measured assistance to give continuity to the ball with a soft and tight shot that ended up in the net.

0-1 in two minutes, with a game unleashed, ambitious and solvent. What could go wrong? Well something happened. Something unlikely because the dominance and command of Barça was diluted based on inaccuracies in the pass and the push of a Slavia that went from surrender to believer. And that after Zeleny’s cross shot that miraculously saved with his feet Ter Stegen took over the game.

The Czech champion showed that the warning issued on the eve by Valverde was accurate. He did not win by real misfortune in Milan, he unfairly lost to Borussia Dortmund and he had the luxury of ending up turning the first half into a torture for Barça, whom Ter Stegen saved up to four clear goals.

Unsure in defense, the Slavia decided to advance its lines and dare to go with everything up, playing with a devilish speed to which the center of the field did not respond and made the Barça lag behind, who only responded with a shot crossed of De Jong and two more, without any danger of Luis Suarez, fought with the goal tragically for his team.

FEAR AND LUCK

He was crying out for the Valverde group to come to rest without suspecting what awaited him when he returned from the locker room. If the coach demanded a reaction from his team, what happened was that the Slavia appeared in the second half with more momentum and gave him no chance to breathe Barça. Until he got the prize he deserved.

A bad coverage of the center of the field, another, allowed Masopust to arrive on the left wing and center satin and measured so that Boril finished off. It is now impossible for Ter Stegen to avoid a draw that was suspected many minutes ago in the stadium. And the second half was just beginning.

The 1-1 revolutionized the Slavia, more if possible, and caused a real short circuit in Barça, stunned and without an established plan to get out of the quagmire. He touched the 2-1 Soucek with a shot that went off very little and, suddenly, touched by fortune, the Valverde team was found with an advantage on the scoreboard, thanks to a center to the second stick that touched as Suarez could … and diverted to the Olayinka network.

Slavia did not give up and continued to suffer, and how Barça, which not even the changes ordered by Valverde saved from living a terrible outcome, defending how well he could that minimal advantage that was enough in the end. After a game to forget saved by the hair. But that left many, too many doubts to trust in Europe.