He Barcelona won at Port in Do Dragão scared to death. Without any trace of exuberance, only of that fear that in the Champions it is always present. The team was uncoordinated, had very little play, but, the most serious thing, was also reckless. That Xavi Hernández, with a quarter of an hour left and with the rival on his beard, did not rush to make the substitution of Lamine Yamal when he found himself unwell, was about to cost him the tie. Cancelo, who had one of those disconcerting days, touched the ball with his hand. However, he was spared the maximum penalty. after review by the referee on the VAR monitor because Eustaquio had done the same a moment before.

So Barça could only hold on to one episode, Ferran Torres’ goal. The striker, who had such a hard time last season because he felt misunderstood and undervalued, who later became interested in self-help techniques and adopted a strange nickname that seems to work for him – Shark –, was the one who showed some silence to the boisterous Do Dragão.

Xavi Hernández, in his pre-match appearance, assumed that, in football, you win, but you also lose. But the problem does not lie in that dichotomy, but in how much one allows oneself to be carried away by the ghosts of the past. AND Xavi, at least for the fans and journalists, wants to raise the flag of optimism. It will be others who remind him of the miseries.

So Xavi did not stop with stories, and lined up those who he considers to be his best players – even assuming that De Jong, Pedri and Raphinha are injured. Christensen paid for Araujo and Koundé to be the starting center back pair; Oriol Romeu returned to the eleven almost out of obligation, not because of the level he has been showing; while Lamine Yamal, as could not be otherwise in the first big game of the season, took over the winger without any vertigo in a team that also included Cancelo – finally a real right back in Europe – and the booed João Félix on his return to the place where he could not be a prodigal son.

It was very difficult for Barça to look ahead knowing himself to be examined in a Europe from which he had been badly removed the last two seasons, when he was not even able to pass the group stage. And that Porto team of footballers without much international prestige, but very determined, knew how to put the Blaugrana in trouble.

Romário Baró, then sad protagonist, suggested that he would be more than enough against the trio of midfielders who had to support an outmatched Oriol Romeu from the base. But the locals, who saw a good place to sneak into Cancelo’s zone of influence through Galen’s attacks, were unable to go further. Frustration grew with Koundé and Araujo’s corrections to the limit.

Because Barça had no other enemy than itself. Although, little by little, he was finding his place in the first time thanks to the contagious confidence of both Lamine Yamal on the right bank, like João Félix on the left. It was the former Porto youth player who first warned the draconian fans of his intentions. His shot, sharp from the edge of the area, was repelled by goalkeeper Diogo Costa. But the test of life was worth it.

It was already in the addition of the first act when Romário Baró decided to ruin all the good things he had done until then. His booty got shaken, Gündogan shot with maturity, and Ferran Torres, who had had to replace the injured Lewandowski after half an hour, stuck out his left foot to beat the goalkeeper low.. Who would have thought, with the Polish striker out of combat after being caught in the ankle by Carmo – the Englishman Taylor did not even whistle a foul –, it was Ferran Torres who gladly assumed the necessary role of finisher.

The goal, however, neither improved nor calmed Barça, not very fine, disoriented, and only waiting for Gavi to come in, sent off at the end after seeing his second yellow, Ter Stegen and the center backs will get them out of any trouble.

“Joy and pain are not like oil and water, but they coexist.” May Saramago help us understand this Barça that knows a lot about pain and that tries to find a taste for joy.