The Spaniards did not pay much attention to Shakhtar. The main controversy has been about Xavi, his constant complaints about injuries, his controversial decisions, especially in terms of line-up selection (the fans are most annoyed with Romeu, who is playing too poorly), and Xavi's inability to progress, work on his mistakes and be more flexible in tactical terms. Another key topic is the upcoming match against Real Madrid. Barcelona fans are worried that with a performance as bad as today's, the club will lose with a crushing score.
Photo: uefa.comSome people said that Shakhtar did not play boldly enough and were afraid to cross the halfway line. If the Ukrainians had been more courageous, they could have even drawn the game.
Asmare: As Messi would say: "What is this team doing in the Champions League?". Seriously, Shakhtar are not at the level of the Champions League. "I didn't like Barcelona today either, they started thinking about the Real Madrid match too early, took care of themselves, but still suffered injuries.
Camilo: "Shakhtar played terribly. I think they were just scared in the first half, and in the second half they were a bit bolder, but they almost forgot about defence. I think now they will say that they lost by one goal, that the draw was so close, but... In fact, even this result is a lucky one for them, because Barcelona could have scored many more goals.
Aroste: Barcelona won without any problems against Shakhtar, even though we didn't have half of our first team. "Real Madrid suffered with the Ukrainians last year and didn't know how to beat them. "I'll remind you that Real Madrid played with the first team. Yes, Shakhtar are an unpleasant team, but I would be surprised if Barcelona couldn't beat them today.
Salvador: As I said, the match will be difficult. And it turned out to be. There are many reasons for this: personnel problems, the upcoming match with Real Madrid, lack of motivation to play against such an opponent. I can't say that the Ukrainians caused many problems today, they rather interfered with Barcelona's play and acted as tough as possible. To some extent, their game plan worked.
Chama: If we take dangerous and scoring chances, the score should have been around 5-1, but our team's finishing suffered a little. The Ukrainians played almost the entire match in defence, created dangerous attacks several times and scored one goal. I expected more from them.
Samu: This Barcelona team is not good. Xavi... He has no team structure, we win by inertia. Oriol Romeu is a player with no technique, no understanding of football. What is he doing at Barcelona? In my opinion, Gundogan does not improve anything in the team, his best years are long behind him. It's true that there are many injuries, but even with these players, you can build a more effective game. Let's change on Saturday against Madrid because the team needs to add, and most of all it concerns the coach.
LaLocha: Fermin was the best today. Felix played poorly, made a lot of mistakes, often rushed. Ferran Torres didn't have the best match either. I didn't like Yamal either, he takes the initiative, but the effectiveness of this is tending to zero. If Shakhtar had been braver, they would have drawn.
Veliz: All teams have injuries, you have to admit that if you have the best team in Europe, as you have been saying since the summer, injuries are not a hindrance. Xavi often complains about problems, but the main problem is his ideas, which often do not work. We had to play a different style of football against Shakhtar.
Alvarez: "Barcelona have virtually guaranteed themselves a place in the Champions League play-offs. It remains to be seen whether it will be the first place. But with such a game, we should not expect a good result in a match against any strong opponent. "Antwerp, Shakhtar, and even Porto are mid-table sides, closer to outsiders when it comes to the Champions League level. But even here, Xavi has problems. It seems to me that he has stopped developing and progressing. And with him, the team has stopped and is standing in the same place.
Mariel: The match was not very interesting. After the two goals, Barcelona played at 50-60% of their capabilities. "Shakhtar played a little more actively in the second half, but they are not capable of more. We have a win, and that's the main thing. Let's move on.
Dayron: All these minimal and often accidental victories are of no use to the team. Xavi thinks that if we win, everything is fine. If we don't win, it's the fault of injuries. He doesn't like to take responsibility and is constantly asking to buy new players. And then we see retirees in the team who miss half the season because of injuries and don't play as well as they would like to.
Eli: If we play so badly against Real Madrid, we will concede 7-8 goals and score one at best. Keeping Romeu on the pitch is a crime. He is of no use, he is a man who only spoils the game, he doesn't even know how to stop the ball properly. Even Shakhtar's players made him a laughing stock. But it doesn't mean anything to Xavi, he will play Romeu in the match against Real Madrid.
Duenas: Following the tradition, we don't see João Feliz again until the end of the season... Nobel Prize in Medicine for the Barcelona medical team and physical training coaches. And Xavi is good. We had to remove the Portuguese at half-time, we would have won without him. But our coach has been sailing lately.
PontoVerde: 3 points, which are very important for Barcelona. Let's see how we play against Real Madrid, but it will definitely be very difficult. The fact that Romeu is playing in the starting line-up is blasphemous. He wouldn't even be a starter at Shakhtar.
Selem: A predictable victory, but it will not console anyone if it turns out that João Feliz is injured. "Shakhtar played hard, many of our players got hurt, but the referee was in no hurry to punish the Ukrainians.
Coronado: Once again, the best thing about the match was the result, we already know about the losses, but the opponent also had losses due to the war. And again, Barca's grotesque performance with an unrepresentative Xavi. It's shameful about Oriol Romeu, because this rubbish player, signed by Xavi, gives wrong results in every game, but continues to start.
Anyelo: It's unbelievable that there are people who want Barca to dominate games for 90+ minutes. Even Manchester City and Bayern Munich can't do that, and they have a lot more players. Today's game went well, there was good intensity, pressure, dangerous moments, goals and, unfortunately, mistakes in the final phase, as well as injuries again. In the last 20 minutes, we made mistakes in defence and Shakhtar used fast forwards. They waited and scored a goal. If we had been a little smarter and more accurate, we could have scored more, because Xavi was again foolish with substitutions.
Gebrille: The first half was a complete advantage, many chances, two goals. We could have won 4-0. The second part of the match: a slowdown in pace and intensity, thoughts about Madrid, who had one more day's rest. "Shakhtar played poorly, but even with such a performance they could have drawn. Luckily, they were very afraid of us, so they could attack more boldly. There is nothing more to comment on. 9 points out of 9, and one point to the last 16 with half the starting team injured. The result is okay, but there are still a lot of questions about Xavi.
Rusego: If Barcelona play so badly in the return leg against Shakhtar, they will definitely not win. I think that their new coach got a lot of useful information today and already knows how to stop Xavi. Because we all know that Xavi doesn't like to analyse his victories, believing that he doesn't make mistakes.
Ornelas: I'll be honest, it's impressive that Barcelona, despite all the losses and the inexperience of the youth team, has 9 out of 9 points in the Champions League and is fighting for first place in the group, but let's be completely honest, it's not as good as it looks. Wins like this and matches like this do nothing for a team to compete in the long term. Many of the results are more 'luck' than quality... With this kind of play, you can beat Shakhtar or Athletic, but not Bayern Munich, Manchester City or Real Madrid.
Anton Prokopov
