Spain: Barça inflicts a “manita” on Sevilla FC before challenging Bayern
Barcelona, ??Spain
Once again led by its star striker Robert Lewandowski, FC Barcelona gained confidence on Sunday by beating Sevilla FC at home (5-1) on the tenth day of La Liga, before facing Bayern Munich and Real Madrid in quick succession next week.
The Polish international, who scored his eleventh and twelfth league goals of the season (23rd sp, 39th), led the Catalan club (1st, 27 points) to a ninth victory in ten games, allowing them to regain a three-point lead over their Madrid rivals at the top of the table, six days before a Clasico that promises to be a hot one.
The goal of the evening came from the right foot of Spanish midfielder Pedri, who allowed the Blaugranas to make the break with a superb strike from outside the area (28th) on an assist from the prodigy Lamine Yamal, the sixth in only ten matches.
Having come on a few minutes earlier, the young Pablo Torre, 21, scored a double at the end of the match (82nd, 88t
h), while the Olympic stadium of Montjuic celebrated the return from injury of the highly regarded Gavi, absent for almost a year after a serious knee injury.
Belgian hopeful Stanis Idumbo saved the honour for the Sevillians with a solo goal (87th).
Having made a near-perfect start to the season under new coach Hansi Flick, Barca have now scored 33 goals in ten La Liga games, their best tally at this stage of the competition since the 2012/13 season.
The Blaugrana club, which is still trying to regain its place among the very big European teams, will experience two huge shocks on Wednesday and Saturday in the form of a revealer, against its bête noire in C1 Bayern Munich, and its great rival Real Madrid, reigning champion of Spain and Europe.
– Griezmann still guides Atlético –
Trailing 1-0 after an hour of play, Atlético Madrid ended up overturning their neighbors Leganés (3-1) earlier Saturday thanks to a goal from French striker Antoine Griezmann and a double from Norwegian Alexander Sorloth.
Long sl
uggish and without ideas, Atlético (3rd, 20 points) can thank “Grizou”, present in the area to cut out a cross from Giuliano Simeone a few minutes from the end (81st, 2-1), before Sorloth scored twice at the end of added time (90th+9, 3-1) to complete an important victory for the Colchoneros, three days before the reception of Lille in the Champions League.
In a Metropolitano stadium partially behind closed doors due to the throwing of projectiles which caused the interruption of the Madrid derby against Real (1-1), the rojiblanco club was surprised in the first half by conceding the opening goal from former Saint-Etienne player Yvan Neyou (34th, 1-0), but ended up getting back into the game in the second half thanks to a nice backheel from Sorloth (69th, 1-1).
Antoine Griezmann, once again decisive, thought he was sent off for a poorly controlled tackle but the referee decided to transform his red card into a yellow card after viewing the video (89th).
His former teammate in the French team, central defen
der Clément Lenglet, who arrived at Atlético this summer, left the pitch with a visible knee injury after unfortunate contact with a teammate, the Belgian Axel Witsel (65th).
In the afternoon, Villarreal (4th, 18 points) were caught at the end of the match on their home turf at La Ceramica (1-1) by Getafe (16th, 9 points), while Mallorca (6th, 17 points) confirmed their good form at the start of the season with a narrow victory (1-0) against Rayo Vallecano (9th, 13 points
Source: Burkina Information Agency