He no longer hides what his move to Paris will be. For the third consecutive match, Ivan Rakitic was a substitute in Ernesto Valverde's lineup, who left the Croatian without minutes in LaLiga for the second time. This time, the midfielder stayed on the bench in Barcelona's draw against Osasuna in Pamplona. The Barça coach was asked about the future of the midfielder and his response left little room for doubt.
Valverde recalled that his team played "a good match" against Betis. "We repeated the lineup," he emphasized. Rakitic is "a great player, but I have other great players," said the Barça coach.
He added: "Last year, he played and Nelson was on the bench. The other day he played well and we repeated it, with Sergi in midfield. We have many to choose from."
With one foot in Paris
According to information from the Spanish newspaper 'As', PSG already has a presentation video of Rakitic in case an agreement is reached with Barcelona for Neymar's return to Camp Nou. "The Franco-Qatari club is convinced that they will ultimately be part of the operation for the player," the media states.
Moreover, 'Le Parisien' has reported that Rakitic is willing to leave Barça, as he already knows that he will not have many minutes this season due to the overcrowding in the midfield.
Draw with a taste of defeat
Regarding the draw at El Sadar, Ernesto Valverde admitted that in the first half, his team was "terrible" and the hosts were "very strong".
"The goal strengthened their approach, we hardly created any chances and we were not able to generate danger because we failed in the final meters," he insisted on Barcelona's performance in the first half.
He lamented that with the score at 1-2, in the final minutes of the match, the penalty by Piqué occurred, which he described as "absurd," although he clarified that it happened "accidentally and sometimes these things cannot be controlled".
The reward for Osasuna's "fight," he said, was the equalizer scored by Roberto Torres and he regretted that they had the game "completely under control" and that they even had a "clear chance" to win.
Similarly, he regretted that Barcelona did not have "more continuity in attack" and "did not know how to escape the pressure" exerted by Osasuna in the final minutes.
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