Barcelona have made it 10 wins out of 10 to start the season and remain perfect in their Champions League campaign thanks to a fantastic 4-1 comeback win away to Galatasaray at RAMS Park on Tuesday night. After dominating the start of the match and conceding against the run of play, the Blaugrana put on a show in the second half as Lamine Yamal took over the game and led the visitors to a very impressive result in one of the toughest grounds on the planet.
Barça did an excellent job of negotiating the opening 20 minutes against a very loud and hostile crowd and a Galatasaray side that took risks, pressing high and keeping an offside trap to try and cause early mistakes from the Catalans.
Rodri and Pedri controlled the tempo while Pau Cubarsí and Gerard Martín controlled Victor Osimhen, who quickly became frustrated and found himself offside time and time again. The Blaugrana dominated the ball and had three good early chances, the best of which was missed by Anthony Gordon while Dani Olmo and João Cancelo also came close.
The visitors were well on top midway through the half but found themselves behind completely against the run of play after Gordon went down in the box and Barça protested for a penalty, but Galatasaray were quicker to react and started a counter-attack in which Rafael Leão beat Eric Garcia for pace and played a low cross into the box that was fired home by Aleksey Batrakov via a Cancelo deflection.
Galatasaray did not deserve to go in front but somehow found themselves two goals ahead after a corner came into the box and Osimhen’s header was deflected by Baris Yilmas into the net, but the full-back was narrowly offside and the goal was ruled out after a lengthy VAR check.
Barça responded really well to the goal being ruled out and played 15 very good minutes to end the half, and found the equalizer thanks to Olmo winning the ball at the edge of the box and Cancelo finding the back of the net. Gordon almost completed the comeback seconds later but Çakir made a strong save, and a lively contest was all square at the break.
The opening 10 minutes of the second half featured an absolute masterpiece from Lamine Yamal, who was quiet in the first half but came to life in truly spectacular fashion to lead a furious Barça comeback.
His first involvement was a gorgeous one-two with Fermín López and a perfect Trivela cross at the far post, but Gordon failed to hit the target and wasted another big chance. Lamine made more magic with another perfect cross over the defense to find the run of Fermín, who headed it home to put the Catalans ahead.
Yamal’s best moment was still to come, however, as he produced an incredible piece of skill by faking a Rabona cross inside the box to get past his defender and set up Gordon, who beat the keeper at the near post to double the Barça lead.
Galatasaray were visibly impacted by the sudden turn of events and Barça pounced on their vulnerable defense, adding a fourth through Karim Adeyemi, who fired a rocket into the bottom far corner to finish off a devastating counter-attack and clinch the victory with 25 minutes to go.
Hansi Flick was able to make changes and rest a few of his key players as Barça cruised to the finish and the final whistle came to end a very good night in Istanbul. The Catalans remain perfect to start the second and have six points from six in the League Phase, and they did it in very impressive fashion indeed.
Well done, boys!
