The obvious question to ask after watching Pau Cubarsi become the youngest defender to start a Champions League quarter-final, at 17 years and 79 days, and also play with remarkable maturity on a hugely rewarding night for Barcelona in Paris, is: what were you doing at that age?
In the case of this writer (and we’re going back to 1993) the answer is feeling a sense of trepidation about the prospect of making my debut for Swindon Town reserves against Ipswich Town in the Neville Ovenden Football Combination Division One and looking at Paul Goddard’s name (that’s one for our older readers) on the opposition team sheet and fearing the worst.
Cubarsi, it is safe to say, doesn’t suffer from any inferiority complex — and for good reason. The Spaniard, who joined Barcelona in 2018 at the age of 11, is a truly exceptional talent.
Victor Osimhen last month. Kylian Mbappe this month. Cubarsi has come up against a couple of the best forwards in the world and looked totally at home, which is quite something when you consider he only made his first-team debut in January.
Watching Cubarsi play his part in a thrilling 3-2 victory over Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday was a joy, and it is easy to understand why Xavi said what he did after Barcelona eliminated Napoli in the previous round. “When Pau Cubarsi has the ball at his feet, my heart rate doesn’t go up,” the Barcelona manager explained.
There is a wonderful calmness about Cubarsi in possession that says everything about his confidence and temperament as well as his ability. He plays like he already knows he belongs at this level, which must be a wonderful feeling when you are running around in a Barcelona shirt in the Champions League not long after you celebrated your 17th birthday.
Except Cubarsi is doing much more than running around. By half-time against PSG, he had completed more passes than any other Barcelona player — and not just ‘safe’ passes.
There were 10 minutes on the clock when he opened up his body and clipped a diagonal to Jules Kounde, the Barcelona right-back, on the opposite side of the pitch.
It looked like he was going to repeat that pass later in the half, when Kounde held up his left hand, calling for the ball, and Cubarsi shaped to switch play again (see below). Instead, Cubarsi played a brilliantly disguised pass between the lines that took six PSG players out of the game and initiated the move that led to the opening goal.
Robert Lewandowski received to feet, turned and fed 16-year-old Lamine Yamal, who was wide on the right (this feels like a good time to point out that Lewandowski, aged 35, is older than Cubarsi and Yamal put together).
The PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma could only push Yamal’s teasing cross into the path of Raphinha, and the Brazilian emphatically converted the first of his two goals.
Raphinha gives Barcelona the lead in Paris 💥#UCL
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Xavi loves how Cubarsi passes — the range, the timing, the execution. Left foot, right foot. Short, long. Clipped, driven. Straight, disguised. He can do it all. But it is Cubarsi’s decision-making in possession that is arguably more impressive, especially in the context of the occasion in Paris.
The passage of play featured in the next set of images is just after Barcelona had conceded twice in quick succession at the start of the second half. In other words, it would be easy for brains to be frazzled.
But when Cubarsi, Barcelona’s deepest player, receives this pass from Frenkie de Jong, he is not flustered in the slightest and never considers taking the easy option by going back to his goalkeeper.
As Bradley Barcola closes him down, Cubarsi drags the ball back with his studs while looking around to identify his next pass.
Cubarsi spins away from the PSG forward and slides a lovely reverse ball…
… in between three PSG players, and into the feet of De Jong, and Barcelona are on the attack again.
That kind of pass has been a feature of his play in Barcelona’s academy for years.
“I’d say he has one of the best capacities in the build-up we have ever seen here,” Xavi said.
Quite a compliment. Then again, people at Barcelona have already said they see elements of both Gerard Pique and Carles Puyol in Cubarsi, who seems to have a lovely knack of navigating his way out of difficult situations with the minimum of fuss.
In the scenario below, Cubarsi intercepts a pass that was intended for Ousmane Dembele, but it is what he does afterwards that is really interesting.
Instead of passing to his goalkeeper, or clearing the ball, Cubarsi dribbles away from Dembele and…
… plays a lovely left-footed pass to Pedri, the substitute who superbly set up Barcelona’s second goal…
… and the visitors can break.
Crucially, Cubarsi can defend too. He closed the door on Dembele inside the first 10 minutes.
Then he stood his ground against Mbappe when he found himself one-on-one, eventually forcing the Frenchman to pass backwards.
And Cubarsi also somehow got back to make a perfectly-timed block on Mbappe, who was later flagged offside.
By the time the half-time whistle had been blown, Cubarsi had frustrated each of PSG’s front three.
A fine Nuno Mendes delivery from the left, in first-half stoppage time, implored Marco Asensio to attack the ball in the middle.
But Cubarsi was alert to the danger, ensuring he got across the Spaniard…
… and made another outstanding challenge.
Cubarsi’s performance was not flawless — he was booked in the second half — and there was a moment in the opening period when he got tackled trying to step out with the ball. But the talent is there for all to see.
“These young kids at Barca, they were tremendous today,” Rio Ferdinand, the former England defender and TNT Sports pundit said. “You think what we were doing at 16/17 years old — there’s no way we could have gone out there and performed at this level with that energy and aura. It was really good to see.”
(Top photo: Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
