Pedri

The landscape of Spanish football appeared very different back then. Valencia were the reigning La Liga champions, their second title in three years, while ...

They play in the Barcelona way. It was Gavi that scored the opener, before assisting Robert Lewandowski for the second. There remain major question marks over the health of the club’s finances. Less than 12 months have passed since Barca thrashed Madrid 4-0 at the Bernabeu and there have been plenty of bumps along the way since then. But the Barcelona where they’ve developed into two of the best young players in Europe is not that club. Here, losing by the same scoreline, they were made to look old, leggy and past their best as Gavi and Pedri zipped around them with vim and vigour. This heralded a new era for the Catalan club, the greatest in their history. Barcelona haven’t won La Liga in three years, their longest run without a league title since Gavi was born. The day before the match we thought about how to create overloads with four midfielders. That’s the day a youngster named Pablo Martin Paez Gavira was born in the province of Seville. And now too Gavi and Pedri. Messi became the club’s all-time top scorer with 672 goals in all competitions.