14 Barcelona players are at the World Cup, so here’s a look at how their performances matched up against each other.
Barcelona’s status as a top club in Europe means that they have a lot of talented players. Therefore, they have a strong presence in Russia with players in every single group. Performances have been mixed, though, as they got off to different starts.
Altogether 11 Barca players were involved in the first round of matches. Yerry Mina, Thomas Vermaelen and Marc-Andre ter Stegen were the only players that missed out. None of the starters lost their opening game, but Germany and Colombia did lose with Ter Stegen and Mina on the bench respectively.
As a sidenote, this list includes Andres Iniesta, even though he won’t be a Barcelona player next season, because he is still technically under contract until July 1st.
Here’s the power rankings for the first set of matches…
11. Samuel Umtiti
This was a World Cup debut to forget for Umtiti, although his side did come away with a victory. Australia spent most of the game stifling France through their organised defensive shape. This was helped by France’s lacklustre shape and lack of clear ideas for how they were going to break down the opposition.
France did go ahead through Antoine Griezmann’s penalty in the second half, which gave them a platform to work from. However, a moment of stupidity from Umtiti took them back to square one. He blatantly handled a cross in the penalty area, and Mile Jedinak promptly dispatched the penalty. The strange aspect of it was how out of character it was because he has been a model of consistency for Barcelona.
Aside from that, he did little else wrong, but the Socceroos rarely threatened. His performances can only get better after in the rest of the tournament, and he will be grateful that it didn’t cost his side three points against the easiest side in the group, on paper.
10. Luis Suarez
Suarez carried on his Barcelona form because he lacked sharpness, which is in contrast with how clinical he is for the national team especially in tournaments. He had a number of chances come his way, but he wasted the majority and only had one on target. Egypt largely frustrated La Celeste, but were the unfortunate victim of a late Jose Gimenez header.
Edinson Cavani looked a lot more threatening than the 31-year-old, and if this form continues then his place in the starting XI could be under real threat from Maxi Gomez. Uruguay’s set-up means that they are heavily reliant on the two strikers to finish and create openings because the 4-4-2 formation is built around them.
They lack tactical flexibility in order to accommodate both Suarez and Cavani in the team. Therefore, they can’t afford one of them to be a dead weight like Suarez was. Oscar Tabarez will be thankful that Gimenez bailed the side out because that was a crucial result for them. They should be finishing top of this group easily.