Vitor Roque, the latest addition to the FC Barcelona squad that joined up only a few days ago, made his official debut with the Catalan club in the last night’s match against Las Palmas. Roque had trained with his new teammates for only six sessions before he made this debut.
There was a lot of uncertainty about the possibility of Roque playing ahead of this match, and it was only around 24 hours before the game that the Brazilian was registered with La Liga.
Roque’s first appearance in a Barcelona jersey came 78 minutes into the game, as Xavi replaced Ferran Torres with him. The Brazilian made his presence known from the very first minute, as he pressed the opposition defence to make them uncomfortable.
As already reported here, this was one of the aspects that Xavi has asked Roque to not compromise upon.
The eighteen-year-old striker also had the chance to mark his debut with a goal as he got a double chance right before the end of the match. In the first chance, his shot went grazing past the Las Palmas goalpost, while on the second, the goalkeeper was able to make a save.
As SPORT has noted, the Brazilian took to social media after this debut to comment on this match. His post was accompanied by four photos, and his comments went as:
“Very happy with the victory and my debut. A dream I’m fulfilling. We keep going for more, glory to God.”
While he was not able to score, this was definitely an encouraging debut from the Brazilian youngster. He is certain to get more chances in the coming matches, as Lewandowski is the only other natural striker in the squad, and Xavi will have to carefully manage his minutes to keep him fresh in the decisive half of the season.
