Ferran Torres was talking impatiently to the fourth official as he waited for the substitution to be made. He looked towards the pitch to see the player he was about to replace, Robert Lewandowski, and waved to him as if to tell him to hurry up.
At Signal Iduna Park it was the 71st minute and the game had become difficult for Barcelona. In the first half, Hansi Flick’s side had been back to the Barca of the good feelings of the beginning of the season, before the “s*** November”, as Flick himself called it, arrived.
Barca had been superior to Borussia Dortmund, with a high pressure that worked again, and felt comfortable with the ball. They had 67 per cent possession in the first half, with very few turnovers and the players were no longer committing the technical imperfections seen on Saturday against Real Betis (2-2). Flick’s team had authority but did not bite.
The Catalans’ first goal came early in the second half. Raphinha finishing off a good pass from Dani Olmo to score. But the German side’s reaction was almost instantaneous. Eight minutes later they levelled with a controversial penalty for a foul by Pau Cubarsi on Serhou Guirassy, which the forward converted to make it 1-1.
Barcelona no longer dominated as clearly as in the first half. Dortmund were starting to come to life and the game was not over. A defeat could have been the trigger for a crisis in Barcelona.
It was in this context that Torres came on. It is never easy to enter games at times like this when you are not a first-team regular, and even less so when your performance has been criticised in other seasons.
But Torres seemed impatient to come on — and it took him just four minutes to make the difference. A precise cross from Jules Kounde was volleyed home by Fermin Lopez. Gregor Kobel saved that shot, but next to him was Torres, who took the rebound in the penalty area and made it 2-1.
Dortmund reacted again and within three minutes equalised thanks to another goal by Guirassy. But with five minutes to go, Pedri started a fast counter-attack and passed to Lamine Yamal, who provided a brilliant assist to leave Torres alone in front of Kobel. His control was not perfect but he scored to win the game for his team.
Everyone ran to the former Manchester City forward, even the players who were warming up on the touchline. The bench went crazy. Flick began to shake his fists in victory and Torres smiled, before looking at his team-mates, turning serious and gesturing that they had to fight to the end.
Torres only needed 14 minutes to become the unexpected hero of this match. Flick views him as the fourth striker in a forward line that is difficult to break into right now. Raphinha is in top form, Lewandowski is back to his best and is just three goals away from equalling the goals he scored in all of last season (he is the top scorer in La Liga) and Yamal, well, he’s Lamine Yamal.
Having accepted that he will not be able to compete with these three players, Torres has positioned himself as the perfect understudy and finally feels comfortable in that role. He was happy to make the most of the minutes Flick gave him, helping the team, coming on when things went wrong. And having a player like that who accepts the status he has been assigned is just as important as having a good starting player.
The changes reflected well on Flick, whose substitutions against Betis had been criticised — Lewandowski, Pedri, Olmo and Raphinha all went off when the game was not won and Barca ended up conceding and dropping points.
“When there are complicated situations for the team, Ferran reacts very well,” Flick said at a press conference after the game. “The second goal was not easy but he still managed to score. He was very happy. He has a very positive mentality. After his injury he has become very important for the team again and you could see that today. We’ve worked a lot with him, we’ve seen what we need to work on, so no matter what, he’s a very important player.”
Torres’ history with Barcelona has not been what one might expect from a player for whom Barcelona paid €55m (£45m, $58m). He has struggled to shake off his price tag and accept the role he has found himself in.
The player struggled after the 2022 World Cup. In Barcelona he was criticised a lot and a large part of the fanbase demanded he should be sold. In the summer of 2023, Torres returned with a new nickname. He called himself ‘el tiburon’ (the shark). He explained that he had spoken with psychologists and had talked with the UFC fighter Ilia Topuria to help him change his mentality.
Since then, Torres always takes advantage of any minutes he gets, even if they are few and far between and less than he would like to have.
“It’s not that I want to continue, it’s that I’m going to continue at Barca,” he said this summer in an interview on Rac1.
Torres has recovered the spirit of the shark. He knows what his role is and he executes it to perfection.
“I came out to help the team because Borussia were pressing us,” Torres told Movistar after the game. “It’s one of those games that makes a group because we knew how to suffer. It happened again when we were 2-1 up and they equalised and we reacted very well.
“This is everything. It’s about getting our feelings back, it’s the victory, it’s the union we’ve shown, it’s how we’ve celebrated the goals, which also adds up.”
Torres has scored four goals in the past three games. He has become a player who gives Flick attitude, energy and a positive mentality.
Barca’s victory means they have taken 15 points out of 18 (they only lost the first game against Monaco) and with two matches left they are second in the standings.
Barca’s players celebrated in a way that reflected the importance of this victory. For them it was a definitive farewell to the ghosts of Europe, to have faced the current Champions League runners-up and to have beaten them on their home turf. The Catalans had not won in a German stadium since 2016.
(Top photo: Alex Gottschalk/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
