Kylian Mbappe found it hard to deal with 17-year-old Pau Cubarsi because the young player kept causing problems for PSG.
Pau Cubarsi made a big impact in football on Wednesday night against Paris Saint-Germain. Before the important game, everyone knew he was skilled, but they were waiting for his big moment to prove himself in the Champions League quarterfinal match in Paris.
The 17-year-old made a big entrance on a huge stage. Even though the crowd was against him, Cubarsi did even better than expected. PSG, with Kylian Mbappe leading them, surprisingly didn’t win.
Cubarsi comes from a tiny village in Catalonia with just 200 people. He did really well in a big soccer game against one of the best teams in the world, making his village proud. He’s the second youngest player ever to be in a Champions League quarterfinal. Even though it was only his second time playing in the Champions League, he played great against Napoli last month. He didn’t seem nervous at all during the game against Luis Enrique’s team. If he was anxious, he didn’t show it.
He played really well in the first half. He cleared the ball a lot and passed it amazingly well with about 93% accuracy. In the second half, he continued to impress, especially by getting the ball back five times. People watching couldn’t believe how good he was. It was like a star was born at the Parc des Princes!
Cubarsi, who joined Barcelona in 2018 from Girona FC, played his first La Liga game earlier this year against Real Betis, just before his birthday. The game against PSG was his 15th time playing for the main team.
Cubarsi has everything needed to become a future star. What sets him apart is his amazing ability to see everything around him. It’s like he has a map of the field and all the players in his head. This makes his playing style very sneaky and can make the other team nervous.
all the defenders from Barcelona played really well, especially Jules Kounde, who had the main job of stopping Mbappe. Ronald Araujo and Joao Cancelo also played amazingly.
The defense was so strong that even Kylian Mbappe, who’s a big name and will join Real Madrid next season, couldn’t do much. He only got three chances to score, and none of them hit the goal. Throughout the game, he only touched the ball 44 times, which was the least among all the PSG players who played the entire match. This doesn’t happen often.
Raphinha scored two goals to help Barcelona win 3-2, but Cubarsi and his defenders played a big part in the victory. The attacking players from PSG, like Dembele, Asensio, and Mbappe, couldn’t do much. Even though PSG had more possession and took more shots, Barcelona’s defense made those numbers not count in the end.
Xavi, the coach of Barcelona, was really happy with Cubarsi’s performance. He said, “I can’t praise him enough, he’s almost unbeatable and competes like a seasoned player.” Xavi also mentioned that having young players like Cubarsi on the team makes him proud because they believe in themselves.
Cubarsi doing well against PSG is not just good for Barcelona, but also for Spain. Cubarsi has already played two games for the Spanish national team, and with Euro 2024 coming up soon, the coach Luis de la Fuente should be pleased to have such a great option in Cubarsi.
In the past hundred years, Spain has had many talented soccer players. Fans of the team hope that Cubarsi, who really looks up to Carles Puyol, a famous player who won the World Cup and Euro, will also become successful in soccer.
