Suffer from your own greatness

A roaring ovation from almost 85,000 people accompanied Ousmane Dembélé on Sunday evening. With a game of goals – one goal, three assists – he had led FC Barcelona to a comfortable 4-0 win over sixth-placed Athletic Bilbao. "He understood every game situation correctly," praised coach Xavi Hernández, but remained cautious in his assessment. "That's Ousmane," he said: "Some days it's tough, today he had a great moment. He must look for more great moments.”

The trainer learned from damage. Last month, just before the Champions League game at FC Bayern, he compared Dembélé to the Brazilian star Neymar, while the euphoria for his team after a successful start to the season spiraled into boundless spheres. But in the arena they lost 2-0 to the other FCB and if they come back today they will be close to winning the group with four wins from four games. Meanwhile, with only four points, Barça could only prevent an exit with outside help.

The Catalans have been enjoying a strange season of streaks so far after a summer makeover with the signing of Robert Lewandowski. Up until the international break in the second half of September, they showed brilliant football and all the signs of a change. But after the break, there was a relapse into the patterns of the past crisis seasons, garnished with injuries and refereeing errors. Unfortunately, both games against Inter Milan (0:1, 3:3) and the Clásico at league leaders Real Madrid (1:3) took place in this phase.

Since that “tragic week” (“Mundo Deportivo”) things have clearly been going up again. The defensive Villarreal - Bayern's European Cup terror last season - conceded as many goals in seven minutes in a 3-0 win as they had in the entire season before, and the game was also quickly decided against Athletic. But this "successful reset" (captain Sergio Busquets) could come too late for the Champions League. If the blatant outsiders from Viktoria Pilsen don't score their first point in the early game at Inter (6.45 p.m.) today, then Barça will even be eliminated before the kick-off against Bayern (9 p.m.).

An end would be the next hardest test for an environment that Andrés Iniesta, Xavi's congenial teammate from Barça's heyday, describes as "emotionally unstable". "One defeat and the doubts return and general confidence plummets," observed the playmaker of the Japanese club Vissel Kobe aptly from his current distance. Barça also suffers from its own size. "A club like us has to try to win everything and attack in every game and against every rival," says 19-year-old midfield star Pedri.

For such a club, an upward trend with occasional setbacks is not enough. After years of humiliation, above all by Bayern (four wins, 16:2 goals since 2020), and with a debt level of around one billion euros, every game is surrounded by a quasi-existential meaning. In the largest football stadium in Europe, in what is probably the most democratic club among the mega-clubs and in view of the impatient hopes of a comeback, every mood can turn extremely bad.

Busquets, Gerard Piqué and Jordi Alba have sometimes been whistled at from their own audience in recent weeks. For the taste of some fans, the three old masters not only appeared all too often in the photos of European disappointments, Piqué and Busquets just again through blunders in the 3: 3 against Inter. They have also been barely disguised by the club's leadership for refusing to adjust their exorbitant salaries from President Josep Maria Bartomeu's lavish era (until 2020) to the new reality.

Sporting director Mateu Alemany calls their salaries “outside the market”, which should total around 120 million euros per season. Barça must save at least such a sum in order to bring wage costs back to a level that makes the club structurally profitable. The current record budget of 1.25 billion euros was only made possible by special bookings of over 520 million from the sale of future television income and shares in the in-house content production.

They financed transfers like that of Lewandowski - who has so far exceeded expectations in Barcelona. It is true that the missed big chances in Munich and Madrid underpin his sometimes criticized weakness in presence in big games. On the other hand, he saved the last chance of progressing against Inter with two late goals and has already decided many a match in the league. He has scored seventeen times across all competitions, averaging every 72 minutes. In addition, the hype around him helps, as desired, to drive jersey sales and viewer numbers up. So far, an average of 81,625 fans have come to the "Spotify Camp Nou", as the stadium is called for the first time in its history with its sponsor's name - if it stays that way, it would be the highest popularity in the current millennium.

The potentially dangerous upset after the disappointments against Inter seems to be over for the time being. "Xavi Hernaaaaandez", the fans celebrated the coach on Sunday, who still looked exhausted against Inter and Madrid. He surprised with bold rotations against Villarreal and by adding a fourth midfielder in place of the previously sacred 4-3-3 formation against Bilbao, bringing Frenkie de Jong into the starting XI alongside Busquets, Pedri and second youngster Gavi. "If we came back, it's also up to Xavi and his staff," says position colleague Franck Kessié, "they pressed the right button".

Today against Bayern it's all about prestige, the longed-for victory against a big club on the international stage. But just maybe about progressing in a competition in which the club actually budgeted for the quarter-finals. "We have minimal hope with the result in Pilsen against Milan," says Pedri, "and until then we have to believe in it."

After all, miracles always happen. On Sunday Dembélé scored the second headed goal of his career (after one with Borussia Dortmund five and a half years ago) and Lewandowski one of almost supernatural coordination. After a cross from the side, he sent the defender into the void by touching the ball with his outside instep, turned around and put the ball under the bar with the same movement. A contemporary upgrade from Gerd Müller – whose records he chased and often broke at Bayern Munich and whose trophy he accepted at the Golden Ball gala last week: the award for the best scorer is now named after Müller.

Overall, Barça players won in three of the six categories: In addition to Lewandowski, Gavi, 18, was named the best young professional (successor to Pedri, 19) and Alexia Putellas, like last season, the world's best player. Seen in this way, the football Oscars were representative of the situation in the club. Not everything is bad. But a return to the main prize is still a long way off. Among the 30 nominees for the men's Golden Ball there was no player from Barcelona apart from Lewandowski, who had earned the merits for it from Bayern.