{"id":167740,"date":"2025-09-19T14:10:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T14:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/167740\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T14:10:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T14:10:08","slug":"barcelonas-pedri-hailed-by-scholes-grealish-after-ucl-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/167740\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona’s Pedri hailed by Scholes, Grealish after UCL win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Scholes and Jack Grealish<\/a> led the praise for Pedri<\/a> on Thursday after the midfielder helped Barcelona<\/a> kick off their Champions League campaign with a 2-1 win<\/a> against Newcastle United<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Marcus Rashford<\/a> took the headlines with a stunning brace on his return to England, but Pedri also dazzled in the middle of the park alongside Frenkie de Jong<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“My new favourite footballer,” former Manchester United<\/a> midfielder Scholes posted on Instagram alongside a photo of the Spain international.<\/p>\n

Grealish, on loan at Everton<\/a> from Manchester City<\/a>, said on his stories: “Pedri and De Jong are a joy to watch.”<\/p>\n

Pedri struggled with injuries earlier in his career, but the 22-year-old has remained fit and has excelled in a deeper midfield role since Hansi Flick took charge in the summer of 2024.<\/p>\n

As Bar\u00e7a clocked up 63.8% possession at St James’ Park, he had more touches (113) and attempted more passes (93 with a 91.4% completion rate) than any other player on the pitch.<\/p>\n

Pedri impressed as Barcelona beat Newcastle 2-1 in the Champions League on Saturday.\u00a0Dennis Agyeman \/ Europa Press via Getty Images<\/p>\n

His influence on the game was especially noticeable in the seven minutes of stoppage time when he took control of the ball and killed the game after Anthony Gordon<\/a> had pulled a goal back for Newcastle.<\/p>\n

Gordon felt the way Bar\u00e7a handled the ball, led by Pedri, was the better than anything he has previously encountered in the Premier League<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I think the way they keep the ball was a learning experience,” he told beIN. “We don’t play against that kind of style in England, not at that level anyway.<\/p>\n

– Bar\u00e7a-PSG at Olympic Stadium amid Camp Nou chaos<\/a>
– Flick praises ‘fantastic’ Rashford after Bar\u00e7a win<\/a>
– Rashford stars as Yamal’s deputy in win at Newcastle<\/a><\/p>\n

“I thought they were the best I’ve played against in that sense of the game. Some of that play in midfield was really top.<\/p>\n

“We’ve played against some top teams. [Manchester] City, Liverpool<\/a>, Chelsea<\/a>, Arsenal<\/a>, but the way they pass the ball, the midfielders, the way they were fluid in their movement and combining, made it really hard for us to press — and it’s not easy coming here and doing that.<\/p>\n

“We press with intensity, we’re very physical, but to be fair to them, they did really well.”<\/p>\n

Pedri made 59 appearances last season as Bar\u00e7a won LaLiga, the Copa del Rey<\/a> and the Spanish Supercopa, while they came up short in the Champions League, losing to Inter Milan<\/a> in the semifinal.<\/p>\n

He has featured in all five of Bar\u00e7a’s fixtures this season as they remain unbeaten through four league games and their Champions League opener.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Scholes and Jack Grealish led the praise for Pedri on Thursday after the midfielder helped Barcelona kick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-167740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}