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The day the league title race began, Wojciech Szczesny was sitting on the beach in Marbella, lighting up a cigarette, enjoying his retirement; the day it ended nine months on, he was there on the pitch at the RCDE stadium 1,000km north, celebrating alongside the old friends and new with whom he had just become a champion again. At 35, the Polish goalkeeper had been convinced to come out of retirement for one last job, and what a job it was, a season he hadn’t even expected to play ending with a league and cup double.
He was joined by a stellar cast, a whole new generation that includes a kid 17 years and three months his junior – a teenager at the other end of a career that might yet be one of the best there has ever been.
Szczesny had made two vital first-half saves when Barcelona were exposed in the first half against their city rivals Espanyol on the night when they knew a win would secure the title and anything less would leave them having to fight on, maybe even find themselves in a position where it wouldn’t happen at all. And then, as the second began, Lamine Yamal, who could even be the best player in the world already, delivered a moment of class and quality that no one else could, which is what he does.
Delivering the victory too. The shot, so like Lamine Yamal, so his now, bent into the top corner of the net to conclude an almost perfect campaign. Barcelona were set on course for a victory over Espanyol that crowned them champions, Férmin López adding the second in the 94th minute. Another grand moment had belonged to the boy with braces on his teeth, a teenager taking the lead.
When Barcelona were knocked out of Europe, Lamine Yamal had vowed he would never give up until they won the Champions League. He also said he had told his mum that opportunity would come every year. For now, they had to win the league to go with the Copa del Rey. So in the clásico, he curled in the goal that pulled them level again, setting them up for a 4-3 win that left them one win from the title. And now, four days later, he set them up for that too. With a little help from the teammate who is older than his dad.
Barcelona had three more chances to get the final, decisive victory, but there could be nothing better than doing it first time and in a derby too. Espanyol’s coach Manolo González insisted that all he cared about was the victory that would guarantee his team’s survival but for the fans it was a different. Yes, they wanted to avoid relegation, but if they could put one over their rivals, keep the bus at the depo, then so much the better.
They definitely didn’t want to go through the experience of two years ago, and nor did anyone else: in May 2023 when Barcelona won the league here hundreds of fans ran onto the pitch and chased ran the visitors’ players down the tunnel. Here, they started well too, the first chance coming their way when Urko González dashed clean through and put the ball wide.
Yet in those early minutes attention had been drawn instead to reports of an incident outside in which a white car had apparently run over fans that had been surrounding it , accelerating through a crowd. There had been panic, ambulances were at the scene. Videos circulated and at one point the Espanyol fans behind Joan García’s goal had called for the game to be stopped, shouting that people had been hurt or worse. The referee came over then, an announcement was made over the PA saying that the situation was under control, and the game continued but some fans in the first rows vacated their seats. Catalan police said that there had been no serious injuries.
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Back on the pitch, the ball was Barcelona’s – 80% in the first half – but it was slow and little was really coming from it. Espanyol were happy to wait for the chance to run, and that was a plan that was justified by the fact that when they did, they found their way into the space beyond the Barcelona back four. Szczesny made his second superb save, this time from Javi Puado as he was set free after quarter of an hour. He had to be out fast to deny him again ten minutes later as he chased Unai Expósito’s ball.
When Pedri laid into the path of Lamine Yamal and the 17-year-old opened up his body, plenty imagined the ball ending in the top corner but this time it bent over. It wouldn’t the next time. Just before the break, Robert Lewandowski fired wide. And then soon after it, when Lamine Yamal had another chance, he again stepped inside from the right and reproduced what is becoming a copyright of his, curling into the net right by the far post.
Everyone knew what he was going to do; but knowing it and stopping it are very different things, as so many defenders and goalkeepers have found and many more surely will. Standing there before the few visiting supporters high in the corner, Lamine Yamal opened his arms wide. He had put them in place and he was determined to keep them there too, a lesson learnt perhaps from Milan. When he escaped in with two minutes left, he carried to the corner instead; this time he wasn’t going to shoot. On the next attack Férmin López would. It was over, the titles theirs.
