Barcelona had started to find their rhythm. Their midfield trio of Hugo Serrano, Noah Veldkamp, and Thiago Alarcón began dictating the tempo, stroking the ball around with precision. Every pass, every touch, every movement seemed deliberate, calculated. The Camp Nou crowd roared as Barcelona started to press higher, suffocating Manchester City in their own half.
Hugo Serrano, sitting deep as the defensive anchor, received a pass from Matias Rojas and quickly sprayed it out wide to Rafael Montenegro. The winger took a brilliant first touch, gliding past Nathan Sterling as if he wasn't there. Montenegro then cut inside, shifting the ball onto his stronger foot, but before he could pull the trigger, Elliot Graves lunged in with a perfectly timed slide tackle, sending the ball spinning out to the right side of the pitch.
