Undoubtedly a night for FC Barcelona with many positives to look at and choose from. From the performances of both new Portuguese arrivals, Felix and Cancelo, as well as the return of Robert Lewandowski, there is much for the Catalan giants to be pleased about.
However, beyond simply the numerical excellence of the goals and the consistency with which they began pouring down upon Betis in favor of Barcelona, there is also a historic relevance and a significant symbolic attachment to one in particular.
In the 62nd minute, almost 25 yards away from the Real Betis goal, Barcelona forward Ferran Torres dispatched an intelligent and perfectly placed freekick that would end up nestling itself in the bottom corner of the goal, with the Betis keeper having no chance to stop what seemed like an otherwise inevitable goal with the way the ball was traveling.
First since Messi himself
As highlighted by Spanish outlet SPORT, this was the first official FC Barcelona free-kick goal since the last one scored in 2021 by none other than Argentine great and Barcelona legend, Lionel Messi. Since La Pulga’s last addition to his freekick tally for Barcelona, many have tried and failed to add to his unreal numbers in terms of freekick goals at the Catalan club.
At long last, however, a resurgent Ferran Torres breaks that set-piece curse and marks an already impressive season at FC Barcelona with even more symbolic strength to his campaign thus far.
Despite a rough start to life in Barcelona last season with many clamoring for him to be given fewer chances to feature and prioritizing other forwards over him, it seems this season that the Spaniard has managed to turn things around so much so that the same fans now cannot get enough of their in-form attacker.
Including preseason, Torres has now scored 8 goals in his 9 appearances for Barcelona, with an incredible goal average of one every 38 minutes. Beyond wild, and this is something acknowledged by his Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez as well moving forward:
“Ferran is an example. Whether he comes on for 10 minutes, 30 minutes, or from the start, he always comes out at one hundred percent.”