Tag: Barcelona

Thanks to a late goal from Sergi Roberto, Barcelona defeated Almeria 3-2 at home on Wednesday, moving them up to third place in La Liga. Raphinha’s goal in the first half and Sergi Roberto’s double helped Xavi Hernandez’s team win at the end of 2023. Leo Baptistao and Edgar Gonzalez’s goals twice allowed the 20th-placed visitors to pull within one goal of the Catalan giants, but in the end, the home team prevailed. Both teams had several excellent opportunities in the first forty-five minutes as Barcelona methodically attempted to break down the visitors.

When captain Sergi Roberto found himself alone in the middle of the box, it almost looked like an early set-piece would win the game for the Catalans, but ‘keeper Luis Maximiano did a fantastic job blocking his headed attempt.

In the thirteenth minute, Largie Ramazani’s attempt was narrowly missed by Ronald Araujo, and Joao Cancelo had to step in to save it, giving the hosts a warning shot at the other end.

In minute 33, Raphinha opened the score when Araujo’s header from a corner was allowed by a feeble Almeria’s defense. Maximiano made another excellent save, but he was powerless to stop Raphinha’s fierce rebound.

Xavi’s team, now leading, eased off the gas, but not before Robert Lewandowski was gifted a chance in the box by a defender and Maximiano pulled off another outstanding save to deny him.

Their downfall was ultimately caused by this decrease in intensity, as Leo Baptistao stunned them with an equalizer eight minutes later.

The assistant’s flag was raised shortly after Sergio Arribas’ dinked finish over Inaki Pena, which was made possible by Araujo’s defensive blunder.

VAR replays revealed that although he had been offside at one point during the move, he had returned to being onside when Arribas passed him the ball.

At halftime, Xavi made the substitutions, sending on Ferran Torres and Jules Kounde in place of Andreas Christensen and Joao Felix.

Three minutes after halftime, Torres made an immediate impact by working the Portuguese custodian with a forceful strike.

The home team continued to appear slow despite this quick boost in intensity.

On the hour mark, Sergi Roberto met a corner at the near post and lofted a header over the diving custodian and into the far corner to give Barca the lead again, thanks to some poor set-piece defending.

The 20th-place team looked to have been completely overwhelmed by the second goal, but Pena’s gift put them back in the game when he deposited a lofted free-kick at Edgar’s feet, where the defender cheerfully rolled the ball into the open net.

With just over ten minutes remaining, Barca had a fantastic opportunity to win the match, but Ilkay Gundogan and Lewandowski failed to make enough contact with their headers as the goal gaped in front of them.

However, it was Sergi Roberto—making just his fifth appearance of the year—who scored the game-winning goal for the Spanish champions in the 83rd minute, pouncing on Lewandowski’s lofted pass and beating Maximiano.

Five minutes later, in a wildly unpredictable match, Pena made up for his earlier mistake by producing a fantastic reflex save against a header from Iddrisu Baba as his team tripped over the line.

Later, Rafael Benitez’s Celta Vigo lost 3-2 at Villarreal to drop to near the bottom of the table, and Athletic Bilbao moved level on points with fourth-place Atletico Madrid after defeating Las Palmas 1-0.

In the fight for the La Liga title, Barcelona defeated Atletico Madrid 1-0 on Sunday thanks to a brilliant dinked finish from Joao Felix. The Portuguese striker, who is now on loan at Barcelona from Atletico, made it clear this summer that he was happy to be away from the Spanish capital and made his parent team pay at the Olympic Stadium. Before the match, Felix received criticism from a few Atletico players. Barca coach Xavi Hernandez urged him to draw motivation from those remarks, and Felix successfully complied.

Barca now trails leaders Real Madrid and second-place Girona by four points after the forward’s goal allowed them to recover third place from Atletico. “He made a difference for the team again, he gave everything, working hard, stealing the ball back, I am very happy for him,” Xavi told the media.

“I told him to be calm, this extra motivation sometimes speeds you up and you cross the line.”

Xavi praised the overall performance of his players. “We played well tonight, the team had personality, and I think it was our best, most complete game of the season.

“It’s a very positive sign of what we can and should do in every game – this is what Barca should be.”

Atletico came into the game believing that this might be the chance to break their 18-game losing record against the champions in La Liga, which dates back to 2006. Barcelona has had form and confidence issues ever since losing to Real Madrid in the Clasico at the end of October.

After 28 minutes, Felix broke the tie with a deft move to ride Nahuel Molina’s challenge and then dink the ball over Jan Oblak, the Atletico custodian, as Barcelona opened the game strongly and created chances.

Felix raised his arms in celebration and stood on the advertising hoardings in front of the incensed visiting fans, while Diego Simeone, the coach of the Rojiblancos, looked annoyed as he appeared on the big screens.

The 24-year-old striker, who set a club record in 2019 by signing for 126 million euros (137 million dollars), never adjusted to life in the capital and did not mesh well with Simeone’s style of play or management.

Felix described his celebration to Movistar, saying, “It was spontaneous… in the heat of the game and it was like a relief, for everything I lived through this summer.”

“Every week I’m talked about, whether for good or bad, I do my job, without looking at what they say or think.”

Axel Witsel was soon booked for hacking Felix to the ground shortly after, which may not have happened by coincidence. Felix nearly scored a second with a nudging attempt from Ilkay Gundogan’s cut-back, but Oblak stopped him this time.

Barcelona dominated the game as Gundogan performed well in midfield alongside the healthy-again Pedri and Frenkie de Jong. At the beginning of the second half, Raphinha clipped the post to eject Barcelona supporters from their seats.

The crowd, which was the club’s lowest of the season despite playing against elite opponents, was less than 35,000, maybe as a result of the later kickoff time and the colder winter evenings. In the second half, Atletico made some progress, but not enough to force an equalizer.

Antoine Griezmann, the Rojiblancos’ talisman, put forth a lot of effort, but he was unable to score against his former employers; in 14 meetings against Barca, he has failed to score. Another former Barcelona player, Memphis Depay, went closest for Atletico with a free kick that Inaki Pena mishandled.

Simeone conceded, “They had more personality with the ball and they started better.”

“The team improved and had the chance to equalize.”

Robert Lewandowski, who has only scored three goals in his last ten games for the team in all competitions, missed a late chance to seal Barcelona’s victory. Fourth-place Atletico leads the top two by seven points and Barca by three.

Atletico goalie Oblak told Movistar, “I don’t know what happened, but the idea was to go for the game.”

“Nobody was good in the first half, nobody wanted the ball, nobody wanted to play.”

Earlier on Sunday, 10-man Real Betis held winless bottom side Almeria 0-0 at home. Under new coach Diego Alonso, struggling Sevilla, ranked 15th, drew 1-1 with Villarreal and have lost their last 10 games in both La Liga and the Champions League.