Jules Koundé confirmed on Wednesday his status as the best right back in the world today. Against Crvena Zvezda (2-5), the Frenchman gave 3 assists in the second half, setting up goals for Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Fermín López in just 23 minutes to seal the comfortable Barça victory.
Barça went into the break with an advantage (1-2) thanks to goals from Iñigo Martínez (assisted by Raphinha) and Lewandowski (after capturing a rebound off the post). In the 53rd minute, the Pole sealed his double thanks to an excellent pass from the Barça right back. The '23' culminated a great culé collective play with a crossed cross so that 'Lewy' only had to push it into an empty goal.
Two minutes later, Jules easily overtook his side again and filtered a back pass just where Rapha appeared unmarked to finish at will, making it 1-4 partial. In the 76th minute the 'little hand' would arrive at the feet of Fermín López, again assisted by an imperial Koundé. The formula, the same as the previous goal: pass behind the Frenchman and definition of the goal from El Campillo.
Koundé equaled a record set by Jordi Alba in 2018
For Barça, Jules' assist hat-trick in the Champions League is the first since 2018/19. It was on October 3, 2018, when Jordi Alba gave 3 assists in the Barça team's rout of Tottenham (2-4). The one from L'Hospitalet enabled Philippe Coutinho and Leo Messi (2) to round off the culé victory at Wembley, then home of the 'Spurs'.
In addition, Koundé got his first 3 assists of the season in Europe. In LaLiga, the player from Paris had only given one assist in the 12 games played so far. Against Crvena Zvezda, the French international completed 53 of 57 passes in 90 minutes (93%), with 4 balls recovered and 1 duel won in 6 attempts.