"Baffled Barça." As rated Batrakov in the game with the “strongest club”

How Batrakov played the “best match of his career”

The Champions League match with Barcelona for the midfielder of Istanbul Galatasaray Alexei Batrakov was a landmark. He opened the scoring by scoring his first goal for a new club.

At the same time, it was Batrakov who started the goal-scoring attack, beating the best player of the World Cup-2026 on football Rodri.

It is important that not only did Batrakov score, but he started the attack that eventually led to this. A very important ball for Alexei, said Spartak sports director Francis Kahigao on Okko.

Barcelona midfielder Fermin Lopez admitted that Batrakov's goal knocked the team, which then missed the second, but it was not counted because of offside. “That goal confused us a little bit because we dominated before that. But we knew how to react and get back into the game, the player was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Before Batrakov, the Russians have not scored in the Champions League since 2021, and Barcelona since 2011. Also, Batrakov at the age of 21 years 126 days became the second in the list of the youngest Galatasaray goalkeepers among the legionnaires in the Champions League. The youngest is Mohamed Sarr – at the age of 18, he scored a goal for his home club Lokomotiv.

Immediately after the game, which ended with a home defeat of the Istanbul team with a score of 1: 4, the Russian admitted that he was overwhelmed with emotions. “There are so many emotions so far that I cannot bear any result yet. Just I'm insanely happy, admitted Batrakov in an interview with the former captain of the Russian national team Sergey Ignashevich on the air of Okko.

“I know it’s Barcelona, but I’m generally a maximalist and upset that we lost, so there’s room to grow in the team plan,” added the Galatasaray midfielder.

In an interview with Sport-Express, he admitted that this is the best moment of his career: “But I immediately remember the hat-trick of Spartacus.” But it's not very comparable. Honestly, I still don't realize.”.

Why Batrakov was replaced early in the Champions League match with Barcelona

Batrakov in the match marked one blow, made a pre-goal pass. The accuracy of his assists in the match was 85% (11 of 13). At the same time, he did not undertake a single stroke, made five losses and won one of three martial arts.

The Russian noted that he rarely met with the ball: “To be honest, I did not meet so much with the ball, I was more in the selection.”.

Batrakov was replaced in the 58th minute of the match. According to head coach Okan Buruk, a replacement was asked because the Russian “at half-time said he was getting tired.”.

Batrakov in an interview with “Championship” called this match one of the most difficult in his career. I just played for 60 minutes... If I played 90 minutes, I don’t think I’d be here. That’s why it was not enough with the ball, mainly in the selection.”.

How to evaluate the game of Batrakov against Barcelona in Turkey

Statistical resources included the Russian in the top 3 best players of the meeting in both teams. And this is in the match with the team that gave the best start this season in the top 5 leagues.

Barcelona won all 10 games of the season with a total score of 43:9. Barcelona last started the season with 10 consecutive wins in 1923. Leading foreign media and experts call Barcelona the strongest team at the moment.

In just ten opening matches of the season, the Catalans scored 43 goals and conceded nine. In nine fights, the team distinguished itself

At the same time, he became the only player of Galatasaray who received positive ratings.

Turkey also praised his performance. In particular, noted the Russian authoritative journalist Nevzat Dizdar.

Batrakov transferred the team's game to the flank, cleverly makes jerks to free zones in the penalty area, where he could repeatedly strike the final blow, but teammates do not see these jerks. He needs to become more noticeable, - wrote Dizdar in H. - Batrakov is able to create free zones in the game and without Viktor Osimen (leading forward of the team), with Osimen it is easier for him to do it. He can turn into a good finisher of Galatasaray attacks. Batrakov is a footballer who not only finds a free zone, but also creates scoring space after the transfer.

Turkish journalist Muhammet Duman believes that in the match with Barça, Batrakov began to show what is expected of him in Galatasaray.

Batrakov specially prepared for this match from a psychological point of view. Having scored a goal and demonstrated a confident style of play, he gave a convincing response to his critics, making it clear that now everything begins anew, Duman shared his opinion in a conversation with Sport-Express. Batrakov is ready to become the new star of Okana Buruk.

According to Duman, fans of Galatasaray in recent days actively criticized Batrakov because of the slow adaptation. In my opinion, it was in this match that Batrakov made his comeback and really opened up. In the coming weeks we will see how he will play brilliantly, the journalist added.