A victory over Paris Saint-Germain was exactly what Barcelona needed, and that is exactly what they got. It was not easy, far from it in fact, but the Catalan giants managed to get the job done. A lot of it was dependent on the consistency of Barcelona, but also on the moments of magic they produced.
The work of Brazilian winger Raphinha deserves a lot of praise for the way he helped Barcelona in this encounter. However, beyond just his work as the spearhead of the team’s attack, there was a name who showed up after a long time away from the field and pulled the strings that gave Barcelona their much-needed victory.
As highlighted by Mundo Deportivo, this win was only possible due to the magic of young Pedri. The Golden Boy winner of 2021 came onto the field near the 61st minute, and with a total of 33 minutes played, he made an unreal level of impact on the game.
Making 26 touches in total, the Canary Islander was inch-perfect in everything he did. Pedri offered a total of 18 passes in the game, and each of them reached their desired target. With that 100% pass success rate, the Barcelona superstar controlled the tempo of the game and gave Xavi’s side a massive edge in terms of possession retention.
As if that was not already enough for the surreal midfielder, he went ahead and did something atrociously majestic to top it all off. Using his first few touches of the ball, he lobbed a pass through towards the PSG goal that bypassed not just the midfield zone, but also went over every single opposition defender and into the path of Raphinha with incisive precision.
That pass would become the assist to the Brazilian forward’s second goal of the night. Yet, Pedri did not stop there by just contributing his creative genius, instead, he also made sure to provide defensive aid to his team. Making two key recoveries during the time he was on the field, the Barcelona midfield gem was relentless.
Even a special moment saw him dribble away from Kylian Mbappe and force the Frenchman to foul him, much to the distraught of the PSG ace. Seeing Pedri sprinkle his magic on Parisian soil was a joy to behold, but the fact that he did it after just coming back from injury should truly allow Barcelona and the world to see just how special of a player he is.
Note: The player’s market value (€80m) mentioned in the title is taken from Transfermarket’s portal on the date of publication of this article.