Hamza Abdel Karim faced some criticism from the Spanish media after his participation as a starter with the Barcelona U-19 team against Deportivo La Coruna in the semi-finals of the Spanish King’s Youth Cup, a match that ended with the Catalan team’s 3-2 victory.
“Sport” newspaper said that the young Egyptian striker did not perform well during his time on the field until he was replaced in the sixtieth minute. It saw that his movements were limited to inside the penalty area and that he played most of the time with his back to the goal.
The newspaper continued that Hamza relied heavily on the physical aspect, but at the same time it noted that this modest performance was not specific to him alone, but rather the entire team suffered from it in the face of the defensive bloc imposed by the Deportivo team.
She also pointed out that Barcelona’s level began to decline after the first half hour of the match, especially after captain Pedro Rodriguez left due to a muscle injury, before substitute player Fofana was able to seal qualification by scoring the winning goal in the 112th minute.
