TALK SPORT
Coming off of the bench for his first ever Barcelona minutes, 17-year-old Marc Guiu took just two touches to score.
The completely unheard of academy graduate appeared as a late roll of the dice at home against a staunch Athletic Bilbao side, and broke the deadlock just 23 seconds later.
Collecting a pass from Joao Felix, 2006-born Guiu took one touch to bring the ball into the penalty box, and another to poke it past Unai Simon for the match winner in the 80th minute.
The teenager looked absolutely stunned to have scored so soon into his debut, and fell to the ground when the referee confirmed it as the winning goal by blowing his whistle ten minutes later.
Guiu’s impact was particularly unexpected as he wasn’t even playing for Barcelona B before the game, instead turning out two levels below for the U19s before his call-up.
A striker by trade, Guiu came in with Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha both out of action, while there’s further injury issues in the shape of Jules Kounde, Pedri, Sergi Roberto and Frenkie de Jong.
“He has an eye for goal, he’s talented. I like him a lot,” Barca boss Xavi said after the match.
“Given our injuries, we have to look at what we have at home and there is a lot of talent”.