Barcelona beat Royal Antwerp. /AFP
This Tuesday, Barcelona defeated Belgium’s Antwerp 5-0 in the first round of Group H of the Champions League, laying the foundations for avoiding a third consecutive defeat in the group stage of Europe’s most prestigious competition.
Own goals by Portuguese Joao Felix (11), Polish striker Robert Lewandowski (19) and Ger Bataille (22), who deflected Rafinha’s cross with his shoulder, were scored in the match at the Olympic Stadium. The excitement was immediately taken away. Work is taking place at Camp Nou, their usual home base, but also at Montjuic, the territory of the Curé club.
Already in the second half, the Catalans took their foot off the gas, but there was still time for Gabi to score his fourth goal (54 points) and once again Joao Félix (66 points) was in top form to seal the victory.
The current Belgian champions, led by ex-Dutch and ex-Barça midfielder Mark van Bommel, made little demands on German goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
With these three points, the Culé team, which is second in the Spanish championship, has surpassed Porto, who defeated Shakhtar Donetsk 3-1 at the Volksparkstadion in Hamburg, the home of the Ukrainian team, in the Champions match due to the civil war, and has moved into the Champions group. He is in the lead. Ukraine.
Barça will visit the Portuguese team on the second day on October 4th, and the two favorite teams will clash to advance to the second round as the top of their group.
But coach Xavi Hernández’s men should not be complacent. Last year, they started by defeating Czech Republic’s Viktoria Plzen 5-1 in the first phase and qualified directly for the Europa League as third in their group.
Source: Diario.Elmundo
