The Barcelona Football Club is going through difficult times, once again in sports.but also in the internal part of the squad, and after the painful and disappointing elimination recently from the Champions League in the quarterfinals at the hands of Paris Saint Germain, the situation does not seem to improve in the short term.
The defeat caused an unexpected and also surprising moment among central defender Ronald Araújo and the German midfielder Ilkay Gundonan in what is prior to this Sunday’s classic against Real Madrid, in a new round of the Spanish LaLiga.
What was the crossover between both players?
With a lot of frustration and sadness, Gundogan was interviewed in the mixed zone and gave his analysis of the match against PSG and pointed out Araújo for the expulsion he experienced in the 28th minute of the match, which cost the Catalan team to play with 10 men for the rest of the match to finally end up falling 1-4.
“We felt like we had control of the game before the red card. If it is a foul, it is a red card. I have not seen the replay and surely you will know better. It’s hard to say, but in these crucial moments you have to be sure you can get the ball back. If you don’t get the ball, and I don’t know if he touches it or not, you have to let it go,” declared the German player and one of Barcelona’s leaders since his arrival.
“I prefer to concede the goal or leave the striker one-on-one. (The PSG player) threw the ball long and I don’t know if I reached the ball. He could give our goalkeeper a chance and save us or even concede a goal. Putting yourself down with a man because of the red card so early in the game kills you.”
Immediate response from the Uruguayan
Evidently Gundogan’s statements went viral as well as controversial. and they reached the ears of Araújo, who at the time was questioned about it and his response was the following: “I prefer to keep what I think to myself. I have codes and values that I believe must be respected. The play is fortuitous, it is 50 and 50. If he doesn’t whistle, nothing happens, if he whistles he has to send me off.”
Jules Kounde decided to speak and try to mediate the situation
The defender of the Blaugrana entity, the Frenchman Jules Kounde, has become a key player for Barcelona’s defensive backline and recently spoke about this tense situation between the German and the Uruguayan and commented that: “We have talked about it among ourselves, which is always the most important thing and the issue is closed: Ilkay did not want to do any harm and I believe that Ronald (Araújo) has understood it after talking about it.” “We are all going to pull in the same direction, as we have always done this year in defeats or victories. The locker room is eager, we won’t miss it. We have one last chance to get back into LaLiga,” he declared in reference to the duel at the Santiago Bernabéu.
Kounde has always seen himself in Barcelona as a good teammate and in the face of such a complicated situation by Araújo for his expulsion and the massive attacks received on social networks, he decided to write a message in support of Ronald: “By the way, we win as a team and we also lose as a team, always.” The comment was also applauded by teammates such as Marcos Alonso, Sergi Roberto and Vitor Roque.
Gundogan spoke about it again
“The most important thing is to know that a game like PSG’s can happen. It is normal. Especially for a team like ours with young players, especially in this competition, without many qualifying rounds played.” “If you look at the other qualifying games, like the Naples game, and also in the first leg in Paris, we did quite well,” said the German.
Gundogan only wants to help the team and especially the young Barcelona players as much as he can.whom he considers very talented and hopes that with their help and reflection on mistakes, they will not be repeated in the future: “The disappointment that this last match has caused us is something that we can all take advantage of, all footballers, especially the younger ones, can use it as a motivation to do better, to say: ‘I already have this experience in my pocket and, when I return next year, in similar circumstances, they will realize that that happened, we did that’ and then it can be used to try to avoid making the mistakes that you have made in the past.”
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