Barcelona comprehensively beat Girona at the Montilivi on Sunday afternoon in the fifth round of the season in La Liga, making it five victories straight to maintain a perfect record and keep a firm hold on the top of the table.
Lamine Yamal struck twice in the first half (30′, 37′) to put the visitors ahead, and Dani Olmo produced a fantastic finish two minutes into the second half to practically settle the outcome. Still, Barcelona weren’t going stop just yet, and it was Pedri who scored their fourth goal in the 64th minute, before Cristhian Stuani pulled one back for Girona with 10 minutes to go.
In the 86th minute, Ferran Torres put a bit of a stain on his team’s performance by stamping on the foot of Girona’s Yaser Asprilla, earning a straight red card for his trouble.
The teams
Michel, who did a great job with Girona last season by leading his team into the Champions League, chose a 4-2-3-1 setup. With Paulo Gazzaniga in goal, Alejandro Frances, David Lopez, Daley Blind and Miguel Guttierez formed the back line. The double pivot in the middle of the park consisted of Ivan Martin and Jhon Solis, and striker Abel Ruiz had the trio of Bryan Gil, Viktor Tsygankov and Arnaut Danjuma in support.
Hansi Flick in the Barcelona dugout went with the same formation. Robert Lewandowski led the line up front, with Dani Olmo directly behind, Yamal on the right and Raphinha on the left. Pedri paired up with Marc Casado in deeper midfield roles. Centre-backs Inigo Martinez and Pau Curbasi were flanked by Alejandro Balde and Jules Kounde, with Marc-Andre ter Stegen between the posts.
The game
Though Barcelona appeared more determined to go for a goal early on, the first 30 minutes of the match were actually balanced pretty well. Girona had some promising moments too while the scoreline remained 0-0, and they were obviously made to pay later for not being more focused in those situations.
What made it worse for the home side was the fact that they brought about their own demise in the 30th minute. Having received the ball in his own box from a goal-kick, Lopez was far too casual as he tried to take it past Yamal. The young Barcelona winger was alert and pounced straight away, punishing the carelessness of the Girona defender by dispossessing him, before slamming past Gazzaniga into the net. Lopez, twice the age of Yamal, should really know better.
Yamal showed a perfect mix of luck and composure again, seven minutes later. Raphinha whipped a free-kick into the box and it somehow bounced off Lewandowski towards Yamal, who fired a perfect shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the box to double Barcelona’s lead.
There was a bit of controversy late in the first half. Minute 43 was running when Girona had a penalty awarded for Gil’s header being blocked by the outstretched arm of Inigo Martinez inside the box. However, the VAR intervened, and having seen the slow-motion footage, referee Alejandro Muniz changed his mind, probably deeming the Barcelona defender unable to avoid contact with the ball.
And if Michel’s team harbored any hope of producing a comeback after that, Olmo made sure to put the contest beyond their reach straight after the break. A top-class pass from Kounde released his run, and he appeared to have gone too far to the right, narrowing his angle down greatly, but his shot was absolutely superb and there was nothing Gazzaniga could do to stop it.
In the period that followed, it seemed Barcelona would go on to inflict their hosts with a proper catastrophe. Lewandowski and Yamal both wasted very good chances, before the visitors produced a stunning team move which ended with Casado cleverly finding the run of Pedri in behind and the latter making it 0-4. The appearance of two deep-lying midfielders in the attacking areas obviously confused the Girona defence, which looked far too stationary to be able to do its job properly.
In the end, Barcelona’s defence fell asleep too as Asprilla whipped a pass in behind towards the run of fellow substitute Cristian Portu in the 80th minute. Ter Stegen came out but Portu made an easy job of rounding the Barca ‘keeper and setting Stuani up for a simple tap-in. A bit consolation for the home supporters, nothing more.
However, the recklessness of Ferran Torres six minutes later is very hard to understand. The game was practically over, and there was absolutely no need for him to tackle Asprilla the way he did. The decision to award him a red card was completely justified, and Flick will probably have a thing or two to say to his attacker about acting responsibly.
Table rankings
Barcelona are now four points clear at the top of the table again, ahead of the trio of Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid and Villarreal. Under Flick, they really seem to have rediscovered some of the scintillating football they used to play back in the days of Pep Guardiola at the helm – Pedri’s goal was particularly reminiscent of the times when Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta danced around the middle areas of the pitch, while Lionel Messi worked with various partners down the years to bamboozle opposition defences.
If the Blaugrana manage to remain consistent in their performance levels, it’ll be very hard for any rival to keep up.
Meanwhile, Girona have now lost two of their five games played, after getting hammered by Atletico Madrid at the Wanda Metropolitano back in August. But they also recorded some notable victories, smashing Osasuna 4-0 at home and defeating Sevilla away by 0-2. They also drew 1-1 away to Real Betis, and the seven points they’ve nailed on the board have them in seventh place at the moment, level with Alaves in sixth, Athletic Bilbao in eighth, Espanyol in ninth, as well as Osasuna in 10th, though Osasuna have a chance of moving clear as they face Rayo Vallecano on Monday.
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