Although the early setbacks with Ronald Araujo lost to injury and Betis took the lead, Barcelona ended up winning.
Barcelona with Lionel Messi is a better team
Barcelona have won six games in a row as they came back from behind to beat Real Betis and Ronald Koeman couldn’t hide his excitement after the match. Although the early setbacks with Ronald Araujo lost to injury and Betis took the lead, Barcelona ended up winning. “The results made us believe, and the team used their mentality to win this game,” Koeman said. “This is the way.” Trincao became the hero of the hour, who came on as a substitute and scored with just the minutes left on the clock. “He’s young, he has to adapt to the level of a big club like Barcelona,” Koeman explained. “We gave him minutes. In recent games, he had bad luck missing chances. Today he was decisive, and that is important for him and for us.”
Lionel Messi became another impactful substitute. “Barcelona with Messi is a better team, much more effective,” admitted Koeman. “He has been here for many years, showing that he is a vital player for this team”. Some were surprised that Messi and others were on the bench, but Koeman emphasized his rotation policy. “We made rotations for players with many minutes and games, although Araujo’s injury made it even more difficult,” he explained. “You have to emphasize the team mentality, in a tough game we won with our quality and character.” The coach was also asked why he chose to bring Frenkie de Jong for Araujo despite having Sergino Dest and Samuel Umtiti on the bench. “I love to have a right-footer and left-footer as a pair of centre-backs, and Dest was uncomfortable yesterday and wasn’t ready to play that long, so we went for Frankie,” he said.