Things got just more complex for Barcelona just before the match against Real Madrid on Thursday. Robert Lewandowski has now been added to the list of injured players in the Catalan team. It has been confirmed on Barcelona’s official website that Lewandowski will not return for at least 2 weeks due to a hamstring injury.
MEDICAL NEWS | First team player Robert Lewandowski has a left hamstring strain. He is out and his recovery will determine his availability. pic.twitter.com/AmxWJ38B0O
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) February 27, 2023
This theoretically means that the Polish striker will miss El Classico on Thursday at the Santiago Bernabeu in Copa Del Rey, and the two matches in the league, against Valencia at home and Athletic Club away.
Robert Lewandowski is the top scorer in the Spanish League with 15 goals scored. In all competitions in total, he has scored 25 goals in 31 games, a number that makes him the main scorer of the Catalan team.
Pedri and Dembele are still out for Barcelona
Things are even more complicated for Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez since both Pedri and Dembele are injured. Now he has to find a solution for Lewandowski as well. Ansu Fati did not play against Almeria, but he is expected to be ready in the coming days.
Pedri is undoubtedly one of the players who makes the biggest contribution on the field for Barcelona and the statistics also show this. Pedri got injured early in the game in the first leg against Manchester United in the Europa League.
Out of the four games that Barcelona played without Pedri, they won only one, against Cadiz. They drew with United in the first leg, lost in the second leg, and lost against Almeria.
Similarly happened last year when, in the absence of Pedri, Barcelona was eliminated against Leipzig in the Europa League, and then two defeats by Cadiz and Rayo Vallecano followed. It was precisely the absence of Pedri that ended the positive run of Barcelona and sent the season to failure.
In the last match against Almeria, in the absence of Pedri, Barcelona had no creativity in the midfield, which also increased the number of crosses in the area. In total there we 47 crosses and only 3 of them were effective. Barcelona had 72% of the possession and only 13 shots on Almeria’s goal.
Lo del Barça en Almería:
— Albert Ortega (@AlbertOrtegaES1) February 26, 2023
Centros realizados: 47
Centros rematados: 9
Un 19%.
Pedri is not expected to return until March 20, which means that he will be absent against Real Madrid in the Copa Del Rey, against Valencia and Athletic Club in the League.
Meanwhile, Ousmane Dembele was injured against Girona on January 29 and has missed 6 games since the injury. On Saturday, Xavi Hernandez gave a statement and said that the Frenchman is back in training, but it remains to be seen when he will be ready to return. However, Xavi emphasized that Dembele “is fine” and that he is “close to returning”.
Dembele is going through a good form at the moment in Barcelona since he has scored 8 goals in 28 games in all competitions. The Frenchman is known for his penetrations on the wing and it is obvious that his return to the game is more than welcome.
Xavi under pressure – Barcelona’s board wants more
Xavi was nervous with the players after the defeat by Almeria and stated that the team lost the opportunity to go 10 points clear of Real Madrid.
According to a report from as.com, FC Barcelona president Juan Laporta is not happy with the team’s recent performances on the field.
Laporta is quoted as saying that “the effort made based on levers and the debts of the club does not have correspondence on the pitch for now”.
The draw against Manchester United in the first leg, the loss in the second leg, and the loss against Almeria have increased the pressure on Xavi’s shoulders even more.
On Thursday, Barcelona faces sworn rival Real Madrid in the first leg of the Copa Del Rey at the Bernabeu. Madrid are coming from a wonderful 5-2 comeback against Liverpool in the Champions League at Anfield. They would obviously like to seal even more this bad form that Barcelona is going through.
Although the Copa Del Rey is considered to be a smaller and less valued competition than La Liga, Barcelona still has to defeat Real Madrid because a loss to the Madrid team would only increase the pressure on Xavi.
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Xavi is in the race for the domestic double and must do everything to win these two trophies, even though he is now going through a difficult period with the main players picking injuries. Otherwise, if he loses the 7 points lead in the league against Real Madrid, he is likely to leave by the summer.