Barcelona Boss Xavi Has Compared Winger Ousmane Dembele To Neymar. The Catalan giants sealed a 5-1 victory over Viktoria Plzen in their opening match of the Champions League, setting the tone in their group, which also consists of Inter Milan and Bayern Munich.
New summer signing Robert Lewandowski stole the headlines by notching a hat-trick adding to goals from Franck Kessie and Ferran Torres for the Spanish giants in the match.
Former midfielder Xavi, however, was full of praise for Dembele for picked up two assists and caused their opponents real issues with his Brazilian type one-on-one magic.
Xavi told Sport after the match: ‘He is happy, enjoying himself, content, he is important for me, for the group… He makes the difference, assists, scores, he is a knife and he is in a good moment.
‘I don’t want to shower him in praise but the capacity he has in the one-on-one is at the level of the best Neymar. He has to be more bold, shoot at goal more and score.
‘He is a good kid and he has to take advantage of these characteristics. He is capable of making the difference and he is doing so.’
Barcelona Boss Xavi Has Compared Winger Ousmane Dembele To Neymar. Dembele provided two assists during the match, the first came from winning the ball back from the opposition, before whipping a perfect cross onto the head of Lewandowski.
His second was a wonderful, looping chip over the top of the defence for Ferran Torres to finish first time.
The boss was also full of praise for new signing and hat-trick hero Robert Lewandowski – who has notched eight goals in just five games since joining Barcelona from Bayern Munich this summer.
The Spaniard added: ‘Hat-trick for Lewandowski today. But not only, he plays and he makes the team play.
‘He knows the third man and reads space perfectly. I’m in love. His signing was fantastic.’
The Spanish giants will be hoping Lewandowski can continue his prolific form as they come up against tougher opponents in Bayern Munich and Inter Milan next in the Champions League.
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