Dani Alves 8.5, Demir 4: rating Barca players in Boca Juniors loss
Dani Alves — 8.5
On his first match after his return, Dani Alves proved that Barcelona were completely right to sign him. The Brazilian was rock-solid defensively and contributed a lot offensively as well.
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The coach appears to value Dani's creativity, that might be the reason why Xavi moved him to the midfield in the second half. And even out of position, Alves did a good job.
Riqui Puig — 8
The 22-year-old led Barca's attacks against Boca Juniors and actually did a good job. Dribbles, shots from the distance, shots from inside the box, long passes, through balls — Riqui had a bit of everything against the Argentines.
However, Puig did also lose a few balls here and there, and at times got simply outmuscled by the Boca midfielders.
Neto — 7.5
Unfortunately, Neto could not help Barca in the penalty shootout, but he was very reliable throughout the game. The Brazilian pulled off some key saves, and even when he came off his line, it always ended up to be the correct decision.
Sergino Dest — 6
The American was deployed out of position, he played as a left winger. Dest had a few good moments, including a shot into the side net, but was mostly invisible during the game.
Yusuf Demir — 4
Another player used out of position was Demir. He started as a centre-forward and then was moved to the right side because he could not cope with the physicality of the centre-backs.
Yusuf lost too many balls, his positioning was awful, and the only positive was the foul he won on the edge of the box. Xavi took him off at half-time and was absolutely right to do so.
Others: Garcia — 6.5, Lenglet — 6, Balde — 6.5, Sanz — 5.5, Coutinho — 6, Jutgla — 7, Mingueza — 6.5, Akhomach — 7, Matheus — 6, Mika — 6.5, Jaime — 6, Comas — 6.