SETTABLOID

FC Barcelona defender Ronald Araujo addressed criticism from his teammate Ilkay Gundogan at a book launch on Thursday.

The Uruguayan begged Barca fans for forgiveness after being sent off less than half an hour into a Champions League quarterfinal second leg against Paris Saint-Germain earlier in the week.

His red card proved to be the turning point in a game that Barca was winning 1-0 on the night and 4-2 on aggregate.

Led by Kylian Mbappe, their visitors mounted a 4-1 comeback against 10-men opposition to advance to the semi-finals 6-4 overall.

Football that gave me so much joy now hits me hard. I thank all those who are unconditionally by my side, my teammates who left everything on the field, and the fans who believed in this team until the end,” Araujo wrote on social media Wednesday afternoon.

Immediately after the match, however, Gundogan criticized Araujo for his moment of madness during an interview with CBS Sports.

He didn’t mention the center back by name, but it was obvious to everyone who the German was referring to.

“I don’t even know if he was able to reach the ball,” Gundogan said about the player Araujo hacked down in Bradley Barcola.

“But give him the opportunity, let our goalkeeper maybe save us, or even concede a goal because to go down one man and get a red card so early, it just kills the game,” he added.

Hours after a report from AS revealed that Xavi cancelled a training session just four days out from a league-deciding meeting with Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, with a locker room division caused by Gundogan cited as an influential factor, Araujo briefly addressed the fall out.

I prefer to keep to myself what I think about Gundogan’s statements. I have codes and values that have to be respected,” the 25-year-old insisted at the mentioned event in Barcelona.

Araujo said that he was “sad” about the KO from PSG “like all Barca fans”, and that his team “had it in our hands to qualify” for the semifinals.

That being said, he doesn’t feel responsible for the disappointment, though he accepted that his dismissal conditioned the outcome because his side was reduced to 10 players.

“There are a lot of other things about the game itself,” he suggested, though he felt helpless because he knows what he can contribute when he is on the field.

“I’m grateful to the Barca fans who always send me messages. When I left after the game they shouted at me ‘Uruguayan, Uruguayan’,” Araujo explained, in reference to a popular terrace chant often aimed at him.

About staying on at the club, Araujo accepted that “my future is always talked about and always will be”.

“I’m very happy at Barcelona, my family is happy. Every time I go out on the field, I show it. The desire, the energy of wanting to help … and I’m going to give it my all until the end,” he vowed.

Ilkay Gundogan’s wife Sara has sent out a pretty strong message on social media after her husband was critical of his Barcelona team-mates after defeat to PSG.

The midfielder gave a lengthy interview after the game where he suggested Ronald Araujo made a mistake in challenging Bradley Barcola and was also unhappy with his team’s defending for Vitinha’s goal.

Sara Gundogan has now had her say and insists her husband was giving his opinion in a bid to help the team as he has a “treble mentality.”

“This man is a guy who works hard, and his football opinions are about improving and he is giving everything to this team… His mentality is a treble mentality,” she wrote on Instagram.

Gundogan isn’t the only person to have criticised Barca after the game. Thierry Henry also hit out at Ronald Araujo and Joao Cancelo for their performances.

Araujo has since apologised to supporters on social media, with his post drawing a flurry on positive responses from his team-mates.

According to a report from SPORT, Barcelona are very much interested in the continuity of Mikayil Faye and for that, sporting director Deco has already met with his agent.

During the meeting, they talked about the scenario involving the young centre-back whose salary Barcelona need to adjust since he is expected to transition into the first team.

It is no secret that Faye is one of the highly-rated defenders within the Barcelona youth system. Despite not appearing for the senior team, the 19-year-old has shone on the international stage, leading to extreme demand.

As a result, Barcelona are ready to put him within the senior team and it goes without saying that once it is done, the team will have to work on the player’s appraisal.

Barcelona want Faye to continue

It is suggested that Barcelona are keen on keeping Faye content to prevent him from entertaining tempting offers from other clubs like Manchester United, Inter Milan, Juventus, and Bayer Leverkusen, and to address this, the player’s representatives recently met with Deco.

It is worth noting that Miquel Olmo, a member of Faye’s representation company and also the father of RB Leipzig star Dani Olmo, was involved in these discussions.

This sparked confusion, with some speculating that Barcelona was interested in signing Dani, which is not the case.

A favourite for Rafa Marquez

As of today, Faye has solidified his position in Rafa Marquez’s reserve team, and his potential role in the first team could be significant, especially if Marquez ends up replacing Xavi as the head coach.

Marquez is familiar with Faye, a 19-year-old centre-back known for his strength and speed, particularly his adeptness with his left foot. He could serve as an excellent complement to Inigo Martínez on the left side of defence.

If that is done, Barcelona could consider a few sales from the defensive department such as Martinez himself.

Kylian Mbappe tussled with FC Barcelona players in the tunnel of the Montjuic Stadium after his Paris Saint-Germain team knocked the Catalans out of the Champions League quarterfinal on Tuesday according to Mundo Deportivo, which cited anonymous sources.

As seen in the first leg at the Parc des Princes, Mbappe didn’t have his best game in the return fixture but was far more decisive this time round.

Raphinha put the Blaugrana 1-0 up inside a quarter of an hour, but Ousmane Dembele and Vitinha tied the score 4-4 on aggregate ahead of Mbappe slotting home a penalty past Marc-Andre ter Stegen and then an 89th minute strike on a counter attack as Barca chased an equalizer.

This killed Xavi Hernandez’s men off 6-4 overall, and Mbappe already made news in the Catalan media after a clip of him appearing to tease Culers by shouting “Let’s Go!” in French after the final whistle went viral.

On Thursday, as the dust settles on another continental heartbreak for Barca, Mundo Deportivo reports that Mbappe was involved in a tunnel tussle with some of its players.

Mbappe is known to be fluent in Spanish, and reportedly shouted ,”This is football and it’s on the pitch where you have to talk”.

A few unnamed Barca stars didn’t like this and “went for” Mbappe. There was a “pile-up in which there were insults, shouts and pushes”, Mundo Deportivo explained, and a “tumult with more than sixty people” – players, coaching staff and security personnel – was formed.

Thankfully there was no physical damage according to the Catalan paper, but problems with Mbappe could be a sign of things to come given he is expected to join Barca’s bitter rivals Real Madrid on or after June 30 as a free agent after telling Paris Saint-Germain he won’t renew his contract with them.

Following the Barca win, Mbappe revealed he won’t change that decision and is now focused on trying to deliver himself and his current club a maiden UCL crown.

I have the dream of winning the Champions League with Paris, sure. It’s another step now against a great team and we’re going to try to get to Wembley.

“We played a great game as a group and we worked for six days with the idea of winning here,” Mbappe stated.

Following their UEFA Champions League encounter at Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys in Montjuic on Tuesday night, Barcelona and PSG players were involved in a fight in the tunnel, reports Mundo Deportivo.

The match ended in a 1-4 defeat for Barcelona on the night, which knocked them out of the Champions League at the quarter-final stage, with PSG advancing to the final four, where they will be facing Borussia Dortmund.

What sparked the fight?

As per the report, following the match there was a major tussle between the two sets of players and some staff members as well.

It is claimed that Kylian Mbappe, who scored a brace on the night against Barcelona, might have been the instigator of the fight due to his celebrations.

“This is football and it’s on the pitch where you have to talk,” the Frenchman, who is known to be fluent in Spanish, was heard saying.

This annoyed more than one Barça player because they felt that he was addressing them. They interpreted his celebration as a ‘joke’ and some of them went after him.

This led to a melee between both sets of players, some members of the support staff and other people, while security also got involved as the opposite camps traded insults and pushed and shoved one another.

Fortunately, things didn’t escalate and there was no aggression or physical harm, apart from the tense scenes in which members of both teams got into it.

Mbappe provokes fans

The report adds that Mbappe finished the game very excited, after scoring PSG’s last two goals to seal the tie and ended up provoking a set of Barcelona fans as well.

After celebrating the win against Barça with the rest of his teammates and the PSG fans who had travelled to Barcelona, the French forward left the pitch with great joy but also made a thoughtless gesture towards the Barça fans who were still present in the stands.

After a couple of “on y va” (‘let’s go’ in French), Mbappe made a gesture as he looked at the area where the Barça fans closest to his position were, provoking a reaction from those who had not yet left the stadium.

At the time of writing, Xavi Hernandez is still intent on leaving Barcelona at the end of the 2023/24 season, and a surprise name has now emerged to replace him.

Despite having a two-goal advantage over Paris Saint-Germain in their Champions League tie earlier in the week, the sending off of Ronald Araujo changed the course of the match and the Catalans were dumped out of the premier European competition again.

Since they last won the trophy, when Xavi was Luis Enrique’s captain against Juventus in 2015, they have surrendered in the latter stages to the likes of Roma, Liverpool, Bayern Munich and PSG.

On each occasion they’ve either had a significant lead overturned or been humbled by the opposition.

Things aren’t really getting any better for the Catalan giants, and so Xavi’s intent presents them with another problem when they need it least.

Both Thomas Tuchel and Hansi Flick had emerged as early contenders to take over from Xavi should he follow through with his threat to walk out on the club of his life, though the club’s significant financial issues represent a huge barrier for either to take up the position.

Whilst their salaries wouldn’t necessarily be a problem, it would be their inability to make significant moves in the transfer market because of Financial Fair Play constraints that makes the role an oddly unattractive one.

It’s perhaps with that in mind that ESPN are now reporting that Barca B coach, Rafa Marquez, is being considered for a promotion.

The Mexican played alongside current sporting director, Deco, and Xavi, and even though the Portuguese dismissed Marquez’s candidacy earlier in the season, he might now be the best option that Barcelona have during this difficult period.

It’s believed that the club will try and persuade Xavi to stay in the first instance, but that’s looking less and less likely at this stage.

Following the opening goal to take a 1-0 lead (4-2 on aggregate), FC Barcelona defender Ronald Araújo handed Paris Saint-Germain a lifeline by committing a foul that led to his direct red card. This left the Catalan side with ten men for the remaining hour of the match.

PSG took advantage of the situation, scoring four unanswered goals. The first goal came from Ousmane Dembélé, who again haunted his former club late in the first half. 

Vitinha scored in the 54th minute to even the aggregate score at 4-4, putting the Ligue 1 side ahead 2-1 in the match. Kylian Mbappé followed up with a penalty kick goal in the 61st minute and sealed the deal

with another goal in the 89th minute, securing a 6-4 aggregate victory.

Understanding that his mistake gave PSG the advantage to advance past Barcelona, Araújo went on Instagram to apologize to his teammates and supporters.

“The football that gave me so much joy now hits me hard,” Araújo wrote. “I thank all those who are unconditionally by my side, my teammates who left everything on the field, and the fans who believed in this team until the end. I am very sorry not to give you this joy… We will try again. Força Barça!” 

PSG are now off to the Champions League semifinal, where they’ll face Borussia Dortmund, whom they’ve already encountered in the group stage this season.

Barcelona head coach is giving serious consideration to shaking up his starting XI for the club’s upcoming showdown with Real Madrid.

That’s according to Diario Sport, who have on Wednesday provided an insight into the latest developments behind the scenes in Catalunya’s capital.

In a recent edition of the Daily Briefing, renowned journalist Fabrizio Romano offered an update on the future of Barcelona defender Jules Kounde. Romano said,

FC Barcelona were unable to get a victory in one of the most significant matches for them this season, as the Catalans fell to a defeat to Paris Saint Germain in the Champions League quarterfinals.

Xavi’s men were unable to make their advantage from the first leg count as PSG scored four goals in this match to win the tie 6-4 on aggregate. Ronald Araujo’s expulsion in the 29^th minute was the event that shifted the tie in the Parisian’s favour, and this sequence is expected to have impacts on Barcelona even after their elimination from the top European competition.

As already reported here, the German veteran Ilkay Gundogan did not mince his words when reviewing the game after the full-time whistle, and clearly criticised some of his teammates, with Araujo taking most of the vitriol in particular.

Now, reactions to Gundogan’s comments from other members of the Barcelona dressing room have started coming in, with Araujo’s colleague in defence, Jules Kounde, putting in a thinly veiled response to the German’s comments.

As SPORT has reported, the Frenchman took to social media to thank the supporters for their support, but still highlighted how this match was meant to be seen as a team effort and not as a sum of individual errors:

“An immense disappointment not to qualify for the semifinals when we had everything to do it. By the way, we win as a team and we lose as a team, always. It’s time to recover and prepare for this Sunday’s Clásico. Thank you for the support, culers.”

Although he did not specifically mention it, the second sentence of the message, that accompanied a photo of Kounde in black and white, is clearly a response to Gundogan’s criticism.

In addition to the French defender, Barcelona captain Sergi Roberto also shared a similar message, as he wrote: “Now more united than ever, here we win and lose together.”

It is clear that Araujo’s expulsion was the most influential event of this match, and the Uruguayan deserves the criticism that is coming his way. However, the team also needs to stand united at this low point, and Barcelona fans will be hoping that these to-and-fro comments do not end up ruining the dressing room atmosphere.