Barcelona beat Alavés 6-1 at Spotify Camp Nou, and the only thing anyone wants to argue about is a single goal conceded in the 84th minute by a team that had already scored six. That tells you something about how this fan base processes a rout: find the one flaw and relitigate it until midnight.
The flaw has a name, and it's Rodri. Multiple match reports describe the goal the same way: a loose pass, a giveaway from Rodri in a dangerous area, that handed Alavés the platform to counter and score through Mariano Díaz. It shows up in separate recaps using separate language, which is about as close to settled as these things get on the night of a match.
Gerard Martín had only just entered the game, on for Frenkie de Jong, when the goal happened. One detailed account does note that Martín didn't close Mariano down decisively in the box before the finish, and that's worth saying plainly. But there's a difference between the player who created the chance and the player who didn't snuff it out in the final half-second. Barcelona fans arguing Martín is somehow the bigger villain here have the sequence backwards. Rodri's pass is the reason there was a sequence to defend in the first place. You don't get to the part where Martín is even a factor unless Rodri gives the ball away first.
There's an instinct to go easy on individual errors in a match this lopsided. Alavés arrived without a win in their last several league games, and Barcelona fielded a backline patched together out of necessity, with a debutant at right-back and a midfielder playing centre-back for most of the night. Judge a loose pass from a makeshift defense less harshly than one from a settled unit, fine. Rodri plays a different position, though. He's a holding midfielder whose entire job in that moment is holding onto the ball in a position where Alavés can run at a backline missing three senior options. The chaos around him explains why the goal was scorable, but the pass that made it scorable is still his.
None of this should obscure what actually won the game: Fermín López was involved in Barcelona's attack all night, Raphinha and Lamine Yamal both scored twice, and Anthony Gordon added a sixth after coming off the bench. Brian Farinas, thrown in at right-back for his first senior appearance, handled a tough assignment well. Whether that debut tells you anything durable about Farinas is a fair question against an Alavés side that had been struggling. It's a lot harder to project onto a Champions League night than a single pass is to judge on its own terms. A mistake in possession either happens or it doesn't, regardless of who's lining up across from you.
Barcelona are back on top of the table after two bad results against PSG and Real Madrid, and a 6-1 win is exactly the kind of result a team needs to reset the mood. It shouldn't reset the accountability. Rodri made the mistake. Say so, and stop making Martín carry it for him.
