Xavi compares current Barcelona star to Neymar: ‘Never seen a player with his ability’
After Barcelona’s emphatic 5-1 victory over Viktoria Plzen in their first game of the UEFA Champions League group stage, Xavi compared a winger to Neymar.
After Barcelona’s emphatic 5-1 victory over Viktoria Plzen in the first game of the UEFA Champions League group stage on Thursday night, club coach Xavi lavished praise on Ousmane Dembele by comparing him to PSG star Neymar. While striker Robert Lewandowski grabbed all the headlines with his outstanding hat-trick during the game, the 25-year-old French winger did contribute with two assists and overall brilliant performance.
Xavi heaps praise on Ousmane Dembele
While speaking of Ousmane Dembele’s outstanding performance in his post-match press conference, Barcelona coach Xavi said, “Dembele is in excellent form. He’s happy. He’s enjoying himself, and he’s very important to me. He assists and he scores. He’s like a dagger, and we have to take advantage of that.”
After his initial praises of Dembele, Xavi went to the extent of praising the Frenchman to Neymar by adding, “Dembele is at the same level as the best Neymar. He had suffered a lot in his first years here, but I always said it. He has great abilities, and he deserves everything that is happening to him. There are no wingers in the world that can cut inside to both sides as Dembele can. I had never seen a player with his ability to dribble 1v1. You rarely find players like that. Trust me, he’s an amazing player.”
Lewandowski scripts new UCL record
While Ousmane Dembele delivered an outstanding performance, one cannot take anything away from Robert Lewandowski’s first hat-trick for Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League (UCL). As a result of his three goals in the 5-1 win over Viktoria Plzen, the Polish international became the first player to score a hat-trick in the UCL with three different clubs. His other hat-tricks in the UCL came with Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.
As a result of Barcelona’s dominating win over Viktoria Plzen on Wednesday, they move to the top of their UEFA Champions League group with three points after one match. While second-placed Bayern Munich are level on points with the Catalan giants they do have an inferior goal difference. After a 2-0 win over Inter Milan, the Bavarians have a GD of 2 as compared to Barcelona’s 4.
