With five wins and an unchallenged lead, Hansi Flick’s FC Barcelona continued their splendid start to the season and enjoyed a 4-1 win at Girona on Sunday, in Matchday 5.
With five wins and an unchallenged lead, Hansi Flick’s FC Barcelona continued their splendid start to the season and enjoyed a 4-1 win at Girona on Sunday, in Matchday 5. With 15 points, Barca are four points ahead of Real Madrid (2nd) and Villarreal (3rd), both with 11 points after their respective wins on Saturday away from home against Real Sociedad (2-0) and Mallorca (2-1).
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“We are preparing very well for each match. We have to take it step by step, but we are undoubtedly in a good moment and we must continue like this, we cannot stop now,” Flick told Movistar television.
Barca’s victory on Sunday came in a match between two teams that will start their Champions League campaign in the new week, which gives even more magnitude to the Barca achievement in Montilivi, where the young Lamine Yamal was the protagonist, scoring the first two goals in the first half.
After two games without scoring, the 17-year-old striker opened the scoring in the 30th minute, after stealing the ball from David Lopez and successfully managing to beat Argentine goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga in a one-on-one. He then added to the lead in the 37th minute when he latched onto a rebound and sent a shot in just wide of the post.
Yamal, one of Spain’s leaders in winning the European Championship in July, has scored three goals so far this season, and has also provided four assists, and seems set to win the Golden Boy trophy, which rewards the best young prospect in world football.
At the start of the second half, Dani Olmo scored the most beautiful goal of the afternoon, receiving from Jules Kounde and sending a powerful right-footed shot past Gazzaniga, to make it clear that Girona was going to have no chance of coming back.
The second half was once again Barça’s turn. Robert Lewandowski (55, 59) and Yamal (58) came close but the fourth came in the 64th minute, with a run and subsequent shot by Pedri after a pass from Marc Casado.
Barca was satisfied and Girona, who had won both league games against their illustrious Catalan neighbours last season, were able to score the consolation goal in the 80th minute, with their veteran Uruguayan striker Cristhian Stuani.
The worst news for Barcelona was the expulsion by direct red card in the final stretch (83) of Ferran Torres, for a stomp on the Colombian Yaser Asprilla.
“We didn’t start so well in other years. The manager [coach Hansi Flick] asked us to push from the start, he told us that leagues are won like this, by putting distance between ourselves,” Pedri explained to Movistar.
Girona (7th, 5 points), last season’s revelation with a third place, do not seem to be the same this season after having lost three of their best players from last season, Artem Dovbyk (Roma), Aleix Garcia (Bayer Leverkusen) and Savinho (Manchester City).
Both teams are now in Champions League mode, where they will start the first matchday against teams from the French Ligue 1: Girona visits Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday and Barca will play on Thursday, also away from home, against Monaco.
In the first match on Sunday, Celta de Vigo (4th, 9 points) delivered at home with a 3-1 victory over newly promoted Valladolid (17th, 4).
In the last two matches of the day, Athletic beat Las Palmas 3-2, while Atletico de Madrid beat the surprising bottom team, Valencia, 3-0 at their Metropolitano.
