95% pass accuracy, 2/2 long balls: Barcelona defender puts up ball-playing masterclass against Betis | OneFootball

FC Barcelona won a fairly comfortable game against Real Betis in the sense that they played an incredibly attractive brand of football in attack while going the entire game fairly untroubled in defense except for the penalty in the last minutes.

Despite not having to do much work defensively, Barcelona’s teenage center-back Pau Cubarsi put on a masterclass in ball-playing against Real Betis. The 17-year-old feels like a cheat code to have in a team that loves playing out from the back.

At times, what Cubarsi does with the ball at his feet feels like having a deep-lying playmaker playing in central defense. Just yesterday, we covered an article on how the 17-year-old seems to be playing better as a left-sided center-back and he showcased just why last night.

Of the many moments that he showed last night, there was one particular pass, from the back, where he split a gap between Real Betis’ right-back and center-back to thread a through pass straight into the onrushing Gerard Martin’s feet. It is a pass that would have made Sergio Busquets proud.

As per stats collected by SofaScore, the defensive statistics don’t make for outstanding reading considering he did not have much to do. Defensively, he recorded one clearance, one blocked shot, two interceptions, and two tackles and won two out of his three ground duels.

Coming to his ball-playing numbers. Cubarsi recorded 91 touches in the entire game, completing 79 out of his 83 attempted passes at an astonishing 95% pass accuracy. He also completed both long balls that he attempted on the night.

It is sometimes very easy to forget that Pau Cubarsi is just as young as Lamine Yamal and is perhaps doing an even more astonishing job than the attacker. Playing in central defense is no joke and playing the way the Spanish international does cannot even be imagined.

In Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsi, Barcelona have two generational talents, much like they do with Gavi, Pedri, and Alejandro Balde. Marc Casado is also slowly yet surely reaching those levels. The future is bright for Barcelona and let’s wait and see how it plays.