Fati shoots when the Koeman era begins with a bang

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The victory marked a triumphant start in the Ronald Koeman era, as Barça have been engulfed in all sorts of turmoil since losing 8-2 to Bayern Munich in their previous competitive game on 15 August (AEST).

An unsuccessful attempt to force a transfer of the club’s talisman Messi was undoubtedly the main starter, but when Barca began their 2020-2021 season, he showed that this is not a team to dismiss lightly.

Fati rolled the ball with an impressive double in a span of five minutes, before winning the penalty from Messi, who later saw a cross from him delivered by Villarreal defender Pau Torres.

Unai Emery’s team tensed in the second half, and Barça consequently had a bit less freedom in the final third, but Villarreal’s slight improvement had no impact on what was an easy start for Koeman in The league.

With Messi’s future up in the air, Fati had apparently been billed as the poster boy of this new era at Barça and, unsurprisingly, he was his inspiration here, opening the scoring at 15 minutes with an emphatic shot by first time since Jordi Alba’s cut. .

The teenager was decisive again a few moments later, clinging to Philippe Coutinho’s pass and coldly passing the defenseless Sergio Asenjo, who also had no response to Messi’s penalty, which was also won by the omnipresent Fati.

Things got even worse for the visitors on the edge of halftime, Torres hitting a Messi cross past Asenjo as the unlikely specter of Sergio Busquets lurked for a touch.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Barca’s intensity dropped after the break and Villarreal became a more compact unit after a couple of changes at halftime.

Koeman took the opportunity to give Fati a break with 20 minutes remaining, and another talented teenager, Pedri, had the opportunity to come off the bench to make his LaLiga debut after his arrival from Las Palmas.

Miralem Pjanic and Francisco Trincao also made their debut as substitutes, with the young Portuguese winger almost scoring a fifth goal by nipping at Asenjo’s palms, but Villarreal avoided further embarrassment.

Barça will go back to Celta de Vigo on Friday (AEST), while Villarreal will hope to recover at home against Deportivo Alavés the day before.