Inside Spain: Frenkie de Jong fever drama,
Inside Spain is a weekly instalment brought to you by Football España, providing an insight into all of the major stories coming out of the rich and intense climes of La Liga and beyond.
Four out of five La Liga sides qualified for the Champions League Round of 16, and all of them will be in pot one for the draw on Monday. Somehow, Barcelona managed to turn that into a catastrophic midweek.
Things were relatively tranquil in Can Barca last Saturday, with the biggest story being Bayern Munich trying prise their best defender Ronald Araujo away from them. He looks to be staying, and it’s a good job, because even with him, they were thumped 4-2 by Girona on Sunday.
An historic night for Catalan team, it leaves them alone at the top of the table, seven points clear of Barcelona and two ahead of Real Madrid. Michel Sanchez’s side not only put four past the Blaugrana away from home, but thoroughly outplayed them, with the best football you can see in Spain this season.
Meanwhile it plunged Barcelona back into a state of minor emergency, due to the nature of the loss, which was made even more concerning by a dreadful midweek.
Initially, Robert Lewandowski, Araujo and Ilkay Gundogan were initially left out of their squad to rest, with Barcelona all but through and top of their group for their dead rubber against Royal Antwerp. Then President Joan Laporta reportedly makes a call to Xavi, and they are back in the squad – except for Frenkie de Jong, who is left in Barcelona to recover from a fever.
Ahead of the game, Xavi tells the press it was a decision agreed between himself, Sporting Director Deco, and Laporta. Less than an hour before the game Deco tells the television in Spain that it was all Xavi’s decision. Relations between the
Read on caughtoffside.com
