Barcelona Truimphs Over Villarreal in Intense 7-Goal Thriller
After a shaky start to the La Liga campaign, which included a frustrating draw against Getafe, defending champions FC Barcelona are back on track with two consecutive victories. Barcelona defeated Villarreal last night in an epic seven-goal thriller. The goals poured in at Estadio De La Cerámica in both halves.
Early Villarreal Dominance From Barcelona
Barcelona, with their possession-based gameplay, dominated the home side early in the game. The defending champions opened up the match with a two goal lead in the first fifteen minutes of the match.
The first goal was by Gavi who gave Barcelona the lead in the twelfth minute of the game thanks to a sublime assist from wonderkid Lamine Yamal. Within the next three minutes, another club bagged another goal, putting them two goals ahead of Villarreal.
The second goal, which was scored by Frenkie De Jong, established the dominance of the club right at the beginning of the match.
Comeback From Villarreal
As soon as they were two goals down, Villarreal adopted an attacking approach that involved constantly threatening and pressuring Ter Stegen in goal. This attacking strategy eventually paid off in the 26th minute when Juan Foyth pulled a shot flying past the Barcelona goalkeeper.
As expected, the goal scored by Villarreal turned out to be the glimpse of hope they needed to boost there morale to work out a second goal equaliser. The search for the equaliser was intense within the remaining minutes before half time, fortunately, Alexander Sørloth’s superb finish at five minutes to the half time break was all they needed to put the game back to an even score count.
Second Half Drama
With the first half of the game already recording four goals of even score count for both teams, the second half came along with an intensity that had not been seen in the first half of the match.
The home side was high on confidence after reducing FC Barcelona’s two-goal lead in the first half, and just five minutes into the second half, they completed their comeback and took a 3-2 lead thanks to a goal from Álex Baena.
Comeback from Barcelona
In a game full of goals and comebacks, Barcelona had the last laugh even though they were a goal down against the home side with just 22 minutes of play remaining.
It started with Barcelona gaining a goal thanks to the help of Ferran Torres, who revived the score balance when his team seemed on the verge of losing three points by losing to Vallareal. Torre was initially brought in as a substitute for Oriol Romeu in the 63rd minute, but he ended up scoring a goal after five minutes of play.
Now in equal standing once again, Barca found themselves scoring their second consecutive goal after three minutes, similar to the first goal they scored in the first half, which put them in the lead.
The goal, which was scored by Robert Lewandowski was the first he had scored this season. Eventually, the match ended in favor of the away side, who earned three points for there win.
This was Barcelona’s second win of the league campaign, and with this victory, they are now third in the table, trailing only arch-rivals Real Madrid and Girona.
The Rise of Lamine Yamal
Sixteen-year-old Lamine Yamal was undoubtedly the star of the match, despite not scoring a single goal in a game full of them. He provided an assist to Gavi early in the game and was equally responsible for the forth and final goal from Barcelona against Villarreal.
He became the youngest player to register an assist in La Liga history, breaking the record set by teammate Ansu Fati. He was awarded the Man of the Match award for his display in the game.
In the first three rounds of La Liga 2023–24, Yamal is the player with the highest dribbles per 90 minutes, and he is second in the list of players with the most big chances created. He received applause from both home and away fans when he was subbed off.
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Elite
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