{"id":4875,"date":"2023-10-26T18:11:24","date_gmt":"2023-10-26T15:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/4875\/can-barcas-joao-felix-halt\/"},"modified":"2023-11-04T16:07:25","modified_gmt":"2023-11-04T13:07:25","slug":"can-barcas-joao-felix-halt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/?p=4875","title":{"rendered":"Can Barca&#8217;s Joao Felix halt his losing run vs. Real Madrid?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Can Barca&#8217;s Joao Felix halt his losing run vs. Real Madrid?\u060c<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-meta\">\n<ul class=\"authors\">\n<li class=\"mugshot-shown\">\n<div class=\"author-img\"><\/div>\n<p>Graham Hunter, Spanish writer<span class=\"timestamp \">Oct 24, 2023, 09:45 AM<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"author-overlay\">Close<\/p>\n<ul>Graham Hunter is a Barcelona-based freelance writer for ESPN.com who specializes in La Liga and the Spanish national team.<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"inline inline-photo full\">\n<figure><picture><source data- media=\"(min-width: 376px)\"><source data- media=\"(max-width: 375px)\"><img class=\" lazyload lazyload\" data-image-container=\".inline-photo\" height=\"320\" width=\"570\"\/><\/source><\/source><\/picture><figcaption class=\"photoCaption\">Joao F\u00e9lix has a dismal personal record against Real Madrid, while his new club Barcelona have been in great form against their rivals since Xavi came back as manager.  Which streak will continue this weekend? <cite>Eric Alonso\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/aside>\n<p>One of the hallmarks of Xavi&#8217;s coaching era at Barcelona is that he&#8217;s consistently managed to play preseason Clasico victories in the USA into subsequently defeating <a href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/3958\/real-madrids-fiery-draw-dissecting\/\">Real Madrid<\/a> when it really counts.  Meanwhile, one of the key blemishes on Jo\u00e3o F\u00e9lix&#8217;s career is that his miserable record against <em>Los Blancos<\/em> is precisely the opposite.<\/p>\n<p>The crown prince of Portuguese football, this <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/week\/\"   title=\"week\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">week<\/a> being touted during the countdown to the <em>Clasico<\/em> as some kind of cut-price <em>Blaugrana<\/em> messiah &#8212; three goals and four assists in nine matches since joining Barcelona on loan have sparked such disproportionate excitement &#8212; has faced Madrid eight times competitively, more than any other opponents.  And he&#8217;s never tasted victory.<\/p>\n<p>Initially, he must have thought Real Madrid were soft-touches and that his destiny, having arrived in LaLiga in summer 2019, was to lord it over his new club&#8217;s rivals.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8211; Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (US)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When Atletico Madrid&#8217;s record-breaking financial folly brought F\u00e9lix from Benfica for a monstrous \u20ac128m, his introduction to the rivalry with Madrid came during a summer &#8220;friendly&#8221; at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.  In less than a minute, he set Diego Costa up to score before adding a peach of a goal seven minutes later.  Atleti, very much dancing to a Portuguese beat, were 5-0 up by half-time!  It finished 7-3 to <em>Los Colchoneros<\/em>F\u00e9lix bagged two assists along with his goal, and even if one team played flat-out and the other were just flat, <em>Los Blancos<\/em> were humiliated.<\/p>\n<p>Spain&#8217;s dominant football paper, Marca, reported that &#8220;A genius was born in New Jersey. Joao F\u00e9lix has almost too much football in his boots: this kid&#8217;s touched by genius!&#8221;  So much for that.<\/p>\n<p>From referee Ted Unkel&#8217;s final whistle that day until kick off on Saturday (<strong>Stream LIVE: Barcelona vs.  Real Madrid, 10 a.m. ET, ESPN+ (US)<\/strong>) in Barcelona&#8217;s Olympic Stadium high on Montjuic Hill, where Barca are playing during the Spotify Camp Nou rebuild, it&#8217;s been nothing but outright humiliation against Madrid for this talented and interesting, though incomplete, playmaker.  Although he&#8217;s been impactful &#8212; even diligent &#8212; since Xavi found a place for him in the starting XI of the reigning Spanish champions, the sight of Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior, Toni Kroos, Fede Valverde and Co. pulling up should send shives of fearful anticipation down Felix&#8217;s spine.<\/p>\n<p>Since giving them a football lesson in East Rutherford just over four years ago, everything&#8217;s gone south.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline editorial float-r\" data-behavior=\"article_related\">\n<h2 class=\"editorial-title\">Editor&#8217;s Picks<\/h2>\n<p>2 Related<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>F\u00e9lix has played Real Madrid eight times in total for both Atletico and Chelsea.  His record: zero wins, two draws and six defeats, with not one goal or assist.  Almost as distressing for the 23-year-old is that not once has he played the entire match against Real Madrid, instead starting from the bench three times and being withdrawn in the other encounters.<\/p>\n<p>The most pungent of F\u00e9lix&#8217;s experiences against Madrid, whether coached by Carlo Ancelotti or Zinedine Zidane, were when he lost his first final as a <em>Rojiblanco<\/em> &#8212; the 2020 Spanish Supercup, defeated 4-1 on penalties &#8212; and then when Madrid routed Frank Lampard&#8217;s Chelsea 4-0 on aggregate in the Champions League quarterfinal, while F\u00e9lix was there on a half-season loan.<\/p>\n<p>In short, F\u00e9lix has gone from looking like he was taking candy from a baby during that first exhibition game in the US to being treated like a brat thereafter.  Perhaps Xavi &#038; Co. should be looking for another kind of &#8220;savior&#8221; in this first <em>Clasico<\/em> of the season?  Madrid hold a slender one-point lead over the defending LaLiga champions as they prepare to tussle in a stadium where Barca have known nothing but wins since moving there in August.<\/p>\n<div data-behavior=\"video_scroll\" class=\"contentItem__content contentItem__content--media-card contentItem__content--fullWidth contentItem__content--inline\">\n<figure data-video=\"watch,640,360,38723747\" data-cerebro-id=\"65362f54be6ab312de24364f\" data-title=\"How Marc Guiu's 'fairy tale' debut rescued Barcelona\" class=\"media-wrapper_image video\" data-source=\"espn\"><picture class=\"media-wrapper_image\"><source data- media=\"(min-width: 376px)\"><source data- media=\"(max-width: 375px)\"><img class=\" lazyload lazyload\"\/><\/source><\/source><\/picture><span class=\"video-play-button\" data-id=\"38723747\">play<\/span><figcaption class=\"media-caption\">\n<p>2:10<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"contentItem__contentWrapper\">\n<p>How Marc Guiu&#8217;s &#8216;fairy tale&#8217; debut rescued Barcelona<\/p>\n<p class=\"contentItem__subhead\">Shaka Hislop &#038; Julien Laurens react to Barcelona&#8217;s late <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/win\/\"   title=\"win\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">win<\/a> over Athletic Club thanks to 17-year-old Marc Guiu.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>This Saturday&#8217;s <em>Clasico<\/em> isn&#8217;t a derby in the strictest sense of the word, but it boasts all the eternal elements of one.  For example, it includes the idea that whatever&#8217;s gone before counts for nothing in the maelstrom and madness once these two gigantic &#8212; and gigantically proud &#8212; clubs lock antlers and rut as if there&#8217;s no tomorrow.  Perhaps this fact should be a positive for F\u00e9lix, as his priors against Madrid might well become irrelevant.<\/p>\n<p>Barcelona are noticeably weakened ahead of the game.  Even if two or three of their much-missed stars on the injury list (Robert Lewandowski, Frenkie de Jong, Pedri) make it back to swell the ranks on Montjuic mountain, they&#8217;d still be significantly short of match-practice.  Nevertheless, Xavi&#8217;s time in charge, which is just short of two calendar years, has been marked by coaching a squad that will fight, scrap, argue, cling on and then win in circumstances where, in recent years, previous Barca teams would have lost instead.<\/p>\n<p>Around him, for the first time since 2019, F\u00e9lix has teammates who are genuinely accustomed to beating Madrid and whose recent win record &#8212; notwithstanding the absolute smashing they took when Madrid last visited Barcelona, \u200b\u200blosing 4-0 at Camp Nou last April in the Copa del Rey &#8212; is actually top-class.  By which I mean to suggest that while it&#8217;s daft to be building up an inconsistent, somewhat self-focused playmaker into the guy who&#8217;s either &#8220;rescuing&#8221; Barcelona&#8217;s season or will single-handedly turn this <em>Clasico<\/em> in favor of the <em>Blaugrana<\/em>he&#8217;s nevertheless an interesting part of a unit that can be competitive and can win &#8212; a unit that could help free him from his pathetic record against men in white shirts.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline float-r inline-track\">\n<h2 class=\"img-title\">LIVE ON ESPN+ (SELECTED GAMES)<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"imageLoaded\" src=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Why-Man-United-are-backing-Andre-Onana-despite-poor-start.jpg\" width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The beautiful game lives here.  Stream top leagues, tournaments and teams.<br \/><b>Sign up for ESPN+<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>SATURDAY, OCT.  28 (all times ET)<\/b><br \/>\u2022 Southampton vs.  Birmingham City (7 a.m.)<br \/>\u2022 Schalke 04 vs.  Hannover 96 (7 a.m.)<br \/>\u2022 Barcelona vs.  Real Madrid (9 a.m.)<br \/>\u2022 Bayern Munich vs.  Darmstadt (9 a.m.)<br \/>\u2022 Ipswich Town vs.  Plymouth (10 a.m.)<br \/>\u2022 RB Leipzig vs.  Cologne (12 p.m.)<br \/>\u2022 NCAA: U Penn vs.  Columbia (1 p.m.)<br \/>\u2022 Cadiz vs.  Seville (3 p.m.)<br \/>\u2022 NCAA: Harvard vs.  Yale (5 p.m.)<br \/>\u2022 NCAA: San Diego vs.  Santa Clara (10 p.m.)<\/p>\n<p><b>SUNDAY, OCT.  29 (all times ET)<\/b><br \/>\u2022 Club Brugge vs.  Royal Antwerp (8 a.m.)<br \/>\u2022 PSV vs.  Ajax (9 a.m.)<br \/>\u2022 Eintracht vs.  Borussia Dortmund (9 a.m.)<br \/>\u2022 Real Betis vs.  Osasuna (9 a.m.)<br \/>\u2022 Athletic Club vs.  Valencia (1 p.m.)<br \/>\u2022 Atletico Madrid vs.  Alav\u00e9s (4 p.m.)<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>I&#8217;ll say another thing in F\u00e9lix&#8217;s favor just in case you think I&#8217;m being snippy about him.  That remarkable summer friendly in the Jets\/Giants&#8217; stadium is not Joao&#8217;s only jolly time against Madrid.  In fact, when he was the star of Benfica&#8217;s youth team, The Eagles drew Guti&#8217;s Madrid in the UEFA Youth League, a tournament designed to be the junior version of the Champions League.  It ended with a comprehensive Benfica win for a side also starring Manchester City&#8217;s towering centre-half, R\u00faben Dias &#8212; F\u00e9lix scored twice, including a cheeky back-heeled goal four minutes after kick off.<\/p>\n<p>On the losing side in Nyon, Switzerland in that junior semifinal back in 2017 was a red-cheeked, hard running Uruguayan by the name of Fede Valverde.  The same Valverde who&#8217;s gone on to play significant roles in the eight times, on a senior competitive level, where F\u00e9lix has failed to put a tooth in, never mind defeat, Real Madrid since.<\/p>\n<p>Valverde, who&#8217;s so adored by <em>Madridistas <\/em>and is so vital for his immense ability to match endless running with boundless imagination, creativity and fierce long-distance shooting, possesses a notable <em>Clasico<\/em> record.<\/p>\n<p>Just like F\u00e9lix has faced Madrid more than any other club opponent, the 25-year-old from Montevideo &#8212; nicknamed &#8220;Little Hawk&#8221; &#8212; has gone toe-to-toe with Barcelona in 15 <em>Classics<\/em>, winning seven, drawing one, losing seven and tucking the ball past Marc-Andr\u00e9 ter Stegen or Neto three times.  (In fact, Madrid win whenever he scores against Barca.)<\/p>\n<p>The significance here &#8212; over and above Valverde typifying the kind of mentality, grit, will-to-win and stamina F\u00e9lix will need to approximate this weekend and in coming seasons if he&#8217;s to match the Uruguayan&#8217;s achievements &#8212; is that F\u00e9lix tends to play off Barcelona&#8217;s left wing and Valverde, more often than not, plays down Madrid&#8217;s right.  There has been a successful Uruguayan \u201cseek-and-destroy\u201d mission in many recent <em>Classics<\/em>with Ronald Ara\u00fajo managing often to frustrate Vinicius sufficiently for Barcelona to edge these unpredictable, explosive and entertaining contests.<\/p>\n<p>Will Xavi deploy that tactic this weekend and move Araujo to right-back, given that Jo\u00e3o Cancelo has been performing with honors in that position?  Possibly not, which leaves the way clear for Carlo Ancelotti to copy the idea, deploying Valverde and his &#8220;you&#8217;ll never beat me&#8221; mentality to not only shut down the gradually blossoming skills F\u00e9lix is \u200b\u200bshowing, but then asks the question to Barcelona&#8217;s No .14: &#8220;Can you keep up with me? Can you stop me causing mayhem around Barcelona&#8217;s penalty area?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>If you were Madrid&#8217;s wily Italian manager, isn&#8217;t that precisely the tactic you&#8217;d use to try and ensure that F\u00e9lix continues to have fear and loathing for <em>Los Blancos<\/em> after Saturday?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can Barca&#8217;s Joao Felix halt his losing run vs. Real Madrid?\u060c Graham Hunter, Spanish writerOct 24, 2023, 09:45 AM Close Graham Hunter is a Barcelona-based freelance writer for ESPN.com who specializes in La Liga and the Spanish national team. Joao F\u00e9lix has a dismal personal record against Real Madrid, while his new club Barcelona have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4876,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3737,2914,3738,2913,2797,2184,2183,3465],"class_list":["post-4875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","tag-barcas","tag-felix","tag-halt","tag-joao","tag-losing","tag-madrid","tag-real","tag-run"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4875"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6909,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4875\/revisions\/6909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}