Szczesny still without minutes played: "Iñaki Peña deserves more than me"

Barcelona, ​​21 December 2024 – Last 27 August, Wojciech Szczesny had decided to retire from playing football, after having terminated his contract with the Juventus. Through his social media, the Polish goalkeeper had announced that he had given everything for football and that he was not ready for a new adventure between the posts of another team. A little over a month later, on October 2, the Polish goalkeeper changed his mind, accepting the offer of Barcelona and signing a contract until June 2025. The Blaugrana, in fact, had just lost Tue Stegen until the end of the season due to a cruciate ligament rupture during the match against Villarreal, and to make amends they decided to contact the former Juventus goalkeeper, who had just retired. Since his arrival in Catalonia, however, Szczesny has not played a single minute, watching all the Blaugrana matches from the bench.

flick, in fact, has always deployed the twenty-five year old Iñaki Pain, who is now effectively the starting goalkeeper for Barcelona. Interviewed by Eleven Sports, the Polish goalkeeper spoke about the situation linked to his missed debut with the Barça shirt, defending the German coach's choice and having some good words for his Spanish colleague. "I don't know when I'll debut, since the first day I arrived I've always said that the primary objective would be to get back in shape," said Szczesny, who then added: "My family is very happy to be here and that's the main reason why we came. Now I feel ready to play, but I'm not frustrated by the zero minutes played so far, if I were the coach I would have made the same choices." As for Iñaki Peña, Szczesny said that "he's a guy who deserves trust," and stressed that, after the team's poor performances, his first thought has always been to defend his colleague in the department, demonstrating that Barcelona is truly more than just a club. This evening, at 21pm, the Blaugrana will host Atletico Madrid in the match valid for the eighteenth day of League: Flick's men come into the big match with just one win in their last five league games, while the Colchoneros are on a run of six consecutive victories. Both teams are top of the table with 38 points, but Atletico Madrid have a game in hand, so today's game is very important for both teams, and also for Real Madrid, who are looking at minus one…