Who is Marc Guiu, the 17-year-old hero who saved Barcelona against Athletic Bilbao?

Barcelona had an ideal opportunity on Sunday to close the gap on Real Madrid in the La Liga standings. Los Merengues had drawn 1-1 against Sevilla on Saturday, so it was up to Los Culés to get a win to move closer to the top of the table.

But things were not easy. Athletic Bilbao proved to be a tough opponent, defending solidly and preventing Barcelona's talented attacking players from playing freely. They held on for almost 80 minutes, until Xavi Hernandez decided to make a change: he replaced Fermin Lopez with Marc Guiu. And it paid off instantly: in his first appearance, the young striker received a great assist from Joao Felix, faced goalkeeper Unai Simon and scored with a soft right-footed shot.

After the match, the Spanish player gave an interview to DAZN and explained: "I've dreamed about this moment many, many times. Many nights, and many moments. I'm very happy and very happy. He then revealed what Xavi told him before coming on: “He told me to go out with everything, to press, and that I was going to have a chance for sure, and to take advantage of it”.

The coach also gave a press conference and said about Marc Guiu: "He has a goal and spark, personally I like him a lot. I have no problem looking at the young players from home. There is talent and we have to give them confidence. They gave it to me when I was 17 or 18 years old. He is a homegrown kid who has made a difference, his goal gives us three very important points".

Already a star

With his goal, Marc Guiu got off to a dream start in his professional career. And he is quickly experiencing what it means to be a Barcelona player: in less than 24 hours he multiplied the number of followers he has on his Instagram account. Before the match against Athletic Bilbao there were 47,000 and now there are more than 600,000.