After the first team’s disappointing draw with Cádiz, Barcelona B had the chance to give Culers at least some good vibes that the future is still bright. Francisco Pimienta’s side has been stellar at the Johan Cruyff Stadium this season, and that continued in a 6-0 dismantling of CE L’Hospitalet.
It wasn’t guaranteed though. L’Hospitalet is a side that took points off Barcelona B earlier in the season, and Pimienta’s team is somehow more banged up than when the two teams met previously. In just the last week, Jandro Orellana, Nils Mortimer, and winter transfer Roger Riera joined the seven other long-term injuries on the sidelines. Iñaki Peña, meanwhile, was the one absence due to a first team call-up.
It’s unfortunate for Peña that he was called up to round out a shortened first team bench instead of getting time with the second team, and that’s precisely the reason why Ilaix Moriba and Konrad de la Fuente stayed with and started for Barcelona B today. Conquering their PSG demons was always going to be the task of the players that needed to exercise those demons. It wasn’t a job for the youngsters without them.
Pimienta’s side started the match on the front foot, but the first goal could have gone L’Hospitalet’s way if not for a save from Arnau Tenas in the 12th minute. After that chance though, the youngsters calmed down and a few minutes later a cross from Álvaro Sanz found the head of Rey Manaj for the first goal.
That opened the floodgates as they say and Barcelona B scored two more before the half. The next was a rather solo effort from Ilaix Moriba, who collected the ball running into the penalty box with inside positioning on his defender. Even after losing the ball behind him, he recollected it and rocketed it past the keeper for his first goal of the campaign.
The 18-year-old, who along with some of his teammates was recently called up to the Spain U-19s, almost had his second but was brought down in the box. Manaj stepped up and converted for both his brace and his sixth goal of the season.
Onto the second half, it was time for the other attackers to play their part. Konrad del Fuente hasn’t scored in seven matches and almost 600 minutes and was quiet in this match as well, but he was finding the occasional space. He played on the right for most of the match instead of his regular left side, though he did start popping up more and more on the left in the second half. On his best move of the match, he got to the end-line and drove in a low ball for Arnau Comas to get the easy tap-in. For Comas it’s his second goal of the season.
Barcelona B was up 4-0 at that point and the captain hadn’t needed to do any heavy lifting. Wanting to get in on the goalscoring, Álex Collado took over at that point. He snagged the fifth goal of the game with an excellent strike from outside the box. Not too long after, he converted his fifth goal of the season and the B team’s sixth of the game with a well-placed ball underneath the keeper from Lucas de Vega’s feed.
With the team in cruise control, Pimienta was able to reward Juvenil A midfielder Pablo ‘Gavi’ Gavira with his Barcelona B debut. The 16-year-old entered in the 75th minute and almost scored in the 77th minute.
With Jandro Orellana sidelined, it is a bit surprising that Barcelona B were able to command the midfield in the way that they did. Yet, Nico González held down the pivot spot just fine and the combination of de Vega and Ilaix Moriba in front of him worked hard to retain the ball and press the opponent when the opportunities arose. Meanwhile, the pressure that Alejandro Balde was putting on the left side was devastating to the opponent, particularly after Pimienta filled up the right side with bodies and gave the left-back plenty of space to operate.
As Konrad works his way back into form, it’s good to see that some of the players that are considered to have the most potential (along with Manaj) are proving to be too good for the third division. Collado had two goals, Ilaix had one of his better matches of the season, Balde was constantly finding space and handled his defensive duties well, and Gavi got his Barcelona B debut.
The win vaulted them back into third place on 23 points, though Gimnástic and Andorra above them do have the tie-breakers. That shouldn’t stop the optimism though. Once again Francisco Pimienta provided Culers with some good vibes after the first team struggled.
Dan Hilton is an American journalist, broadcaster, and current Editor-in-Chief of BarcaBlog. Extensive work as a play-by-play broadcaster, producer behind the scenes, and quite average player in his younger years has given him a well-rounded and informative perspective on the sport. Alongside BarcaBlog founder Francesc, Dan started The Barcelona Podcast in 2017
