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Griezmann celebrates Barca century and eyes history in Spain

SoccerNews in General Soccer News 18 Aug 2021

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Antoine Griezmann is “happy and proud” after reaching 100 appearances for Barcelona and the French star is targeting history with the LaLiga giants.

Griezmann brought up his century of games in Sunday’s 4-2 rout of Real Sociedad and almost marked the occasion with his 36th goal for Barca, only to be denied by the crossbar.

With big shoes to fill after the departure of Lionel Messi to Paris Saint-Germain, Barca head coach Ronald Koeman will be hoping the forward can team up with recruit Memphis Depay to fire Barca back to the top of LaLiga.

Griezmann, who arrived from Atletico Madrid in 2019, told the club’s media on Wednesday: “I am happy and proud to have reached this figure.

“It was very important to get a win in the first game with the fans back, who we haven’t seen for so long. It was a good game and hopefully, we can now get another win against Athletic [Bilbao].”

Since arriving in 2019, no player has played more games for Barca, while only Messi (8003) and Marc-Andre ter Stegen (8040) have racked up more minutes than Griezmann’s 7,497.

France international Griezmann sits behind Messi for goal involvements in that time, too, having recorded 51 direct involvements – 19 more than the departed third-place Luis Suarez, who fired Atletico to their first LaLiga title since 2013-14 last term.

Griezmann’s returns do not just impress up against his team-mates, though, given only Suarez (42), Villarreal’s Gerard Moreno (51) and Real Madrid star Karim Benzema (59) have scored more among LaLiga forwards since the Frenchman’s switch to Barca.

While Griezmann remains a long way behind his 94 goals for Diego Simeone’s Atletico, his 20 goals across all competitions last season – the same as his goal involvements in LaLiga – did see him finish as Barca’s second-highest goalscorer.

Having not added to his 35-goal tally yet this campaign, that return means he is 14 goals away from Thierry Henry (49) as the highest-scoring Frenchman for Koeman’s side, Ludovic Giuly third with 26.

However, it is not just his finishing abilities that standout during his Camp Nou career.

Only Messi (233) and Jordi Alba (131) have created more chances than Griezmann (107), who also ranks third at the club behind the same pair for ‘big’ chances created, defined by Opta, with 26.

In a side dependent on the link-up play of their forwards to unleash the likes of Ansu Fati, Alba and Ousmane Dembele, it is apparent why Koeman has challenged the 30-year-old to improve on those figures to be the spearhead and guide his team to glory.

Nevertheless, the former Sociedad man is looking forward to continuing life at Camp Nou.

“I hope I get to play another 100 games and carry on giving everything to make history with this club,” Griezmann added. “I want to keep helping the team both on and off the pitch, in attack and defence, and enjoying being at Barca.”

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