‘Reckless’, ‘playing with fire’, ‘left his mark’ – Barcelona players rated by Catalan media

An own goal from Luke Shaw in the first half saw Manchester United suffer a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Barcelona in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final tie at Old Trafford.

The England international left-back was one of the players who went into the game with a risk of being suspended for the return leg. He was booked during the game, meaning he’ll miss the second leg at the Camp Nou.

Despite the La Liga winners enjoying majority of the possession throughout the game, it was Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side who had more (10) attempts, but none were on target. The visitors, on the other hand, had six attempts, three of which were on target.

We take a look at Mundo Deportivo’s player ratings published in today’s newspapers.

According to the Catalan newspaper, Gerard Pique was the star player for Barcelona and the centre-back is given a rating of four stars. He is the only player to get such a high rating.

Marc-André ter Stegen, Nelson Semedo, Clement Lenglet, Ivan Rakitic and Luis Suarez were rated three stars, while Lionel Messi, Jordi Alba, Arthur and Philippe Coutinho were given two stars.

Mundo believes Sergio Busquets was the worst player for Barcelona, which is why they gave him a single star.

Pique has received the highest rating (8) from another Catalan newspaper, Sport, while Busquets is the lowest rated (5) Barca player again.

Regarding Pique, Sport says the defender was unbeatable throughout the game and he ‘left his mark’.

The reason why Busquets was given such a low rating is because he was ‘reckless’ and after receiving a yellow, he was ‘playing with fire by the closeness of seeing red’.

Sport gave a rating of six for Alba, Arthur and Coutinho, the rest of the members of the starting XI that includes Ter Stegen, Semedo, Lenglet, Rakitic, Messi and Suarez were given a rating of seven.  

Due to United’s dip in recent form, there was a suggestion the hosts were there for the taking, but the manner in which the game panned out, it was clearly not a one sided affair.

Had the Premier League side been more clinical in the final third and tested the opposition goalkeeper, things may have ended differently.