Barcelona continued their dominant show in La Liga with a 5-1 victory against Sevilla over the weekend. Striker Robert Lewandowski bagged a brace alongside Pablo Torre who came on as a substitute. It was a much-needed confidence boost ahead of difficult fixtures against Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.
Barca dominated much of the proceedings right from the kickoff throughout the entire game. Lewandowski opened the scoring in the 24th minute from the spot after Raphinha had been fouled in the penalty box. Pedri doubled Barca’s lead after just four minutes with a powerful shot from the edge of the box into the top corner. Lewandowski completed his brace in the 39th minute, giving the Catalan side a comfortable three-goal lead within 15 minutes.
Barca’s attacking trio of Lewandowski, Raphinha, and Lamine Yamal, with 21 of 33 Barca’s goals in La Liga among them, proved lethal yet again in the game. The former Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund striker now has 12 goals from 10 La Liga games this season, twice the amount of goals scored by the two joint-second-highest scorers in the league, Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe and Villareal’s Ayoze Perez.
Torre would come off the bench to score two goals to seal Barca’s comprehensive victory, getting his first in the 82nd minute, some minutes after which Sevilla got a consolation from Stanis Idumbo’s goal. However, Torre restored the four-goal deficit with his second goal of the encounter from a set-piece.
With the win, Barca have 27 points from 10 games this season and remain on top of the La Liga table with Madrid immediately below in second with three fewer points. Midfielder Pedri remarked on the importance of earning the three points in the manner they did after the game. He said, “Winning like this is very important for the games to come. Today we had to leave with more than just the three points, we needed that good feeling we got. The coach told us that there was going to be spaces at the edge of the box and we took advantage of that.”
Barca’s only loss of the season so far came against Osasuna. Since then, they have gone on to win two straight league fixtures, showing no sign of stopping, despite piling injury issues with Ronald Araujo, Marc-André ter Stegen, Ferran Torres, and Andreas Christensen all sidelined with injuries. However, they welcomed Gavi back into action on Sunday after a long injury absence.
Flick’s men are scheduled to face his former side Bayern next when they host them in the Champions League in midweek before facing rivals Madrid in the league come Saturday.
TRENDING
