Royal Antwerp vs Barcelona results in the 2023-2024 Champions League will be discussed here. The match which took place at the Bosuilstadion, Thursday (14/12/2023) ended with a score of 3-2 in favor of Royal Antwerp.
Oriol Romeu made two blunders for goals from Arthur Vermeeren (2′) and Vincent Janssen (56′). The Blaugrana — Barcelona’s nickname — managed to equalize the score through Ferran Torres (35′) and Marc Guiu (90+1′), but George Ilenikhena’s goal (90+2′) still made Royal Antwerp win.
Not even two minutes into the match, Barcelona conceded. Inaki Pena gave the ball to Oriol Romeu, who was confused about giving the ball to his teammate.
Arthur Vermeeren grabbed the ball and shot straight into Inaki Pena’s goal. Royal Antwerp took a 1-0 lead in the second minute.
In the 29th minute, there were suspicions about a violation in the Barcelona penalty box. However, VAR decided that no penalty was awarded to Antwerp.
Barcelona finally succeeded in equalizing the score in the 35th minute. Barcelona launched a counterattack with Lamine Yamal moving on the right wing.
He gave the ball to Ferran Torres, who then shot it into the goal. The score 1-1 ended the first half.
Barcelona were made anxious in the 53rd minute when the referee issued a red card to Sergi Roberto for tackling Mandela Keita. However, the referee changed his decision to a yellow card after re-monitoring using VAR.
In the 56th minute, Romeu was again the culprit behind Barcelona conceding. He lost the ball near the penalty box and the ball ended up at the feet of Vincent Janssen, who successfully found the back of Inaki Pena’s goal.
Barcelona coach, Xavi Hernandez, finally pulled out Oriol Romeu after two blunders. Ilkay Gundogan came on to replace him along with Joao Cancelo and Pedri from the bench.
Barcelona equalized the score in injury time through Marc Guiu. However, Royal Antwerp still emerged victorious with a score of 3-2 thanks to George Ilenikhena’s goal.
Xavi said that the defeat was definitely a bad record for his team even though they were at the top of Group H. He did not deny that Barcelona played badly in the match against Antwerp.
“The feeling is not good. We had the misfortune of drawing 2-2. We can get more. “We are in difficult times,” said Xavi, quoted from the Football Espana page, Friday (15/12/2023).
The 43-year-old coach said that Barcelona faced stiff resistance from Anwerp throughout the 90 minutes. These conditions also made his team slump in the match.
“We have to be critical of ourselves. We have to develop. The opposing team created chances, but it was difficult for us to do so,” continued Xavi.
Xavi said that he had pocketed a series of notes from that again. Therefore, Barcelona must be better in future matches so as not to lose again.
“We have to develop and realize that we are not in good form,” concluded Xavi.
