Statistics showcase 23-year-old Barcelona defender’s impressive performance in Inter Milan loss | OneFootball

Despite leaving everything on the pitch last night, FC Barcelona were unable to get past Inter Milan in the UEFA Champions League and were knocked out of the competition at the semi-final stage.

The Blaugranes were missing several of their important players for this game, and thus deserve full credit for competing till the last minute against one of the best sides in Europe despite the absence of these stars.

Gerard Martin and Eric Garcia started on the flanks

The Catalans were left particularly weak on the flanks, as both of their starting fullbacks, Alejandro Balde and Jules Kounde, were unable to participate in this game.

Eric Garcia and Gerard Martin were expected to start in the two fullback positions for this game, a factor that generated a lot of doubts, because the former is naturally a centre-back and the latter is still quite green and inexperienced.

However, they both put in performances to remember last night. Eric Garcia scored the goal that started the comeback for Barcelona, while Martin also played quite a good game.

Gerard Martin celebrates after scoring a goal for Barcelona. [Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images]

Martin’s impressive statistics

As Mundo Deportivo has noted, the youngster provided the assists for the first two goals scored by his team, by Garcia and Dani Olmo, which equalised the scores in the second half.

Furthermore, he created another 2 big chances, made three key passes, and completed 79% of his attempted passes. He was also quite good with crosses, as both his assists came from crosses.

Similarly, he contributed a lot in defence as well, as he made 5 clearances, 3 tackles, and 1 interception, while also winning both of his 2 aerial duels and being dribbled past only twice by Inter Milan players.

However, he could still have done well to avoid some mistakes, especially in the final moments of the normal time when he was unable to clear the ball, resulting in Francesco Acerbi’s goal. His clash with Dumfries for this action could easily have been whistled for a foul but the referee did not take such a view of the situation.

Thus, Gerard Martin did not allow Balde to be missed a lot in this game, and hopefully, he will continue to grow with such an amazing performance.