Full time Villarreal vs Barcelona 3 - 4
I admit that Barcelona's defense in this match was really unsatisfactory, but the performance of their attackers and midfielders was good enough that it helped them win the match. Gavi, De Jong, Ferran and Lewandowski scored one goal each, but of course I didn't really expect Barcelona to concede 3 goals. Xavi needs to make strategic changes in the next match so that his team can play better in defense. Lamine Yamal, who appeared slick, managed to become MVP in this match, of course he became a new gem in the Barcelona squad.
In the end these are the 3 points that really made Barcelona work hard. But overall I think Barcelona did pretty well in the build up despite some of their finishing not being great.
The fact that Barcelona won seems to be cool and 3 points is 3 points, but given the previous two games, I would say that this is another sign of weakness (if we are talking about the fight for the title). And with such a game (both in attack and defense), one should not count on any success in Eurocups. Maybe Xavi will be able to even out the situation, but globally I expect a repeat of previous seasons - instability that will not always end as well as today.
That's correct, the "three points is three points" talk might be true for La Liga, but when this is against the best European teams in the Champions League, I don't think that Barcelona has a realistic chance to make it to the semifinal. Maybe the quarterfinals could be possible, but the last season was a good example of what you just explained. A team like Inter Milan punishes this and doesn't lose the game like Villareal did. Both games against Cadiz and Getafe have already had some warning signals. Having one close game against an inferior team is normal, but these three games taken together aren't very promising so far.