Barcelona have been one of the most successful European clubs in the past 20 years, and the reason behind that may have been revealed. Namely, the Catalans seem to have found a perfect attacking combination for winning trophies, as each of their iconic generations in the current century has had the offensive trio consisting of a world-class striker and a net-buster, a fiery and passionate Brazilian dribbler, and a La Masia child aware of the club’s values and greatness.Messi Ronaldinho Henry Messi Neymar Suarez Lewandowski Yamal Raphinha Barcelona things 💙❤️ pic.twitter.com/Y5A4hgob8x— JEY🥇 (@Mmonkoaa) January 12, 2025 Barca’s first such trio was formed in the 2004/2005 season when Samuel Eto’o, Lionel Messi, and Ronaldinho led the club to two consecutive titles and the 2006 UEFA Champions League trophy – the first for the Catalans since 1992. Afterwards, the Cameroonian and the Brazilian moved to the Milan giants, Inter and AC Milan, respectively, while Thierry Henry joined.Even though the team was changed and the former boss Frank Rijkard left, Pep Guardiola and his “tiki-taka” took over and continued the work pretty successfully, though several renowned forwards like, for instance, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, couldn’t fit in. At the same time, La Masia produced another talent, Bojan Krkic, whose career later went south, even though his performances with Barcelona were promising, while David Villa “exploded” at Camp Nou as a ruthless executor.##EDITORS_CHOICE##Guardiola’s spell did bring two more UCL trophies and three additional La Ligas, but once the Spaniard left, Messi needed more support for another pursuit of the Champions League. And the Argentinian got it in 2012 and 2013, as the Catalans signed Neymar and Luis Suarez, forming the popular MSN (Messi, Suarez, Neymar) trio as a counterpart to Real Madrid’s BBC (Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo).The trio spent four years together and won (only) one Champions League before Neymar moved to Paris Saint-Germain in 2017. Four years later, Messi also joined the Parisians, while Suarez left for Atletico Madrid in 2020. Since then, Barca have lived their “dry years” in European competitions.The making of our Lewandowski-Raphinha-Lamine Yamal image 🎨(w/ @TheAdhamSameh) pic.twitter.com/mc4SBGKCRx— B/R Football (@brfootball) January 13, 2025 But then – as if they remembered their winning combination – the Catalans once again built the attack using the “tried-and-tested recipe.” In the role of the renowned striker, there is Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha is the passionate Brazilian, while arguably the most remarkable talent in the football world today, Lamine Yamal, adds the “La Masia component” to the trio.Strange case of Ansu Fati is getting weirder with every new daySo far, they have been functioning perfectly, as football fans can vividly remember Blaugrana’s past generations while watching the Pole, the Brazilian, and the young Spaniard. Will it be enough for the return to the European throne? Who knows. But all the necessary boxes at Camp Nou are checked. Now, Barca can only wait for history to repeat itself.LA LIGA – MATCHDAY 23Friday Rayo Vallecano – Valladolid 1-0 (0-0)/Garcia 71/Saturday Celta – Betis 3-2 (0-2)/Beltran 63, Rodriguez 65, Swedberg 87 – Antony 10, Llorente 22/Ath.Bilbao – Girona 3-0 (2-0)/Sancet 42 pen, 45+1, 79/Las Palmas – Villarreal 1-2 (0-0)/Fuster 84 – Baena 53, Perez 66/Real Madrid – Atl. Madrid 1-1 (0-1)/Mbappe 50 – Alvarez 35 pen/Sunday Alaves – Getafe 0-1 (0-1)/Arambarri 44 pen/Valencia – Leganes 2-0 (2-0)/Mosquera 30, Diakhabi 41/Sociedad – Espanyol 2-1 (1-0)/Becker 1, Mendez 84 – Puado 53 pen/Sevilla – Barcelona 1-4 (1-1)/Vargas 8 – Lewandowski 7, Lopez 46, Raphinha 55, Garcia 89/Monday 23.00: (2.10) Mallorca (3.20) Osasuna (4.20)***odds are subject to change***
