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Further Proof Tiki-Taka Is Back As Brilliant Barcelona Team Goal Earns Draw In Frankfurt

Xavi Hernandez was a tiki-taka king as a player and he watched his Barcelona team score a superb team goal in their 1-1 draw at Frankfurt in the Europa League.

Robert Summerscales

Further Proof Tiki-Taka Is Back As Brilliant Barcelona Team Goal Earns Draw In Frankfurt
Further Proof Tiki-Taka Is Back As Brilliant Barcelona Team Goal Earns Draw In Frankfurt /

Xavi Hernandez was a key member of the Spain and Barcelona teams that dominated Europe via the medium of tiki-taka earlier this century.

The tactic, which involves lots of short passes, saw Xavi win Euro 2008 and Euro 2012 with his country, as well as seven La Liga titles for his club between 2005 and 2015.

Xavi returned to the Camp Nou as manager in November after six and a half years away.

It looks like he brought tiki-taka back with him.

After passing Real Madrid off the park in a 4-0 Clasico win last month, Xavi's Barca earned a creditable draw away to Frankfurt on Thursday courtesy of a superb equalizer.

It was scored by Ferran Torres in the 66th minute of Barca's Europa League quarter-final first leg in Germany. But, in truth, the goal belonged to the whole team.

The move started in defense, before Jordi Alba, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Pedri worked a neat triangle of passes on the left wing.

Pedri then switched the play to Ousmane Dembele on the right and he progressed the attack into the box with a pass to Frenkie de Jong.

Then came the real magic.

De Jong exchanged three first-time passes with Ferran, who then controlled the ball with his left foot, before sliding it into the net with his right.

The goal was just reward for a Barca team who had dominated possession at the Deutsche Bank Park but fallen behind to a long-range Ansgar Knauff strike early in the second half.

That was a pretty good goal too.

Barca will be strong favorites to progress when this quarter-final concludes at the Camp Nou on April 14.

Ferran Torres celebrates after scoring for Barcelona in their 1-1 draw at Frankfurt in April 2022
Ferran Torres celebrates after scoring for Barcelona in their 1-1 draw at Frankfurt :: IMAGO/Fotostand/Racocha
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Robert Summerscales
ROBERT SUMMERSCALES

Robert Summerscales launched FanNation Futbol in February 2022. Rob is a British journalist who previously spent two years on the sports desk at the Daily Mail in London, having earlier served as editor of CaughtOffside.com. He has been to the last two FIFA Men's World Cups, in Russia and Qatar, and is looking forward to completing his hat-trick in North America in 2026.