Barcelona’s perfect start to LaLiga continued over the weekend with a merciless 5-1 thrashing of Villareal. With the win Barca maintain their convenient spot at the top of the LaLiga table, four points above Real Madrid in second place. However, their win over Villarreal was blighted by an injury to first choice goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen.
Ter Stegen picked up a serious injury on his right knee just before halftime. The German goalkeeper was trying to intercept a cross when he got injured, prompting signals from his teammates and opponents for medical help. He was subsequently taken off the pitch on a stretcher and replaced by substitute goalkeeper Iñaki Peña.
The club has confirmed that ter Stegen will undergo a surgery to his right knee. An official statement by the club reads, “tests carried out on the first team player, Marc ter Stegen confirm that he has a complete rupture in the patella tendon in his right knee. On Monday afternoon he will undergo a surgical process and once complete a new update will be released.”
Ter Stegen’s injury is coming a week after Dani Olmo picked up an injury in Barca’s win over Girona. The goalkeeper joins the Spanish forward and others including Frenkie de Jong, Andreas Christensen, Ronald Araujo and Pablo Gavi on Barca’s list of injured players.
Villarreal might have opened the scoring on Sunday but Alex Baena’s effort didn’t count as he was ruled offside. Robert Lewandowski broke the deadlock for Barca in the 19th minute. He netted his second goal of the encounter 17 minutes later to bring the scoreline to 2-0.
However, Villarreal pulled one back with an Ayoze Perez goal bringing the halftime scoreline to 2-1. Pablo Torre increased Barca’s lead in the 57th minute before Raphinha netted a brace to seal the win for the Catalan Giants. Barca have now won six out of their six LaLiga encounters this season, scoring 22 goals in the process while only conceding five.
