What is the story about?
Barcelona
have opened up a temporary four-point gap at the top of the La Liga table thanks to a dominant 4-1 win against Villarreal at Camp Nou on Saturday afternoon. Barça were the better team for the vast majority of the game and secured a deserved victory at home against the third best team in the league, and Lamine Yamal scored the first hat-trick of his career to lead the Blaugrana to an excellent win and celebrate Hansi Flick’s 100th game in style.
Reactions & Observations
- The opening 45 minutes against the third best team in the league were about as encouraging as you can get from a Barça perspective. Apart from one or two moments where the visitors got in behind the high line, the Catalans were excellent in all areas from ball control to chance creation and, crucially, their ability to contain counter-attacks and constantly catch Villarreal in offside positions.
- Lamine Yamal was the star of the show throughout the half as he thoroughly dominated left-back Sergi Cardona and created chace after chance, and the second of his two goals was a masterpiece of dribbling combined with one of the best strikes you will see all season. It was a truly special goal, and the icing on the cake of a brilliant first half from the teenager.
- Fermín López assisted both of Yamal’s goals and also had a really strong showing himself, playing a complete game as a right-sided centeral midfielder in a 4-3-3 and doing tons of work with and without the ball.
- Marc Bernal was given a big responsibility to play as a single pivot in the system and had a solid opening half, losing possession a couple of times but ultimately doing a pretty good job of controlling the pace and passing the ball accurately into good areas.
- Things did not start well in the second half as Pape Gueye scored after a corner to bring Villarreal back into the contest, and the visitors had some dangerous counters in the first 10 minutes of the period. Barça struggled to keep the ball and started to look vulnerable at the back again, and there was a feeling they could throw away a well-earned lead.
- But Hansi Flick didn’t waste any team and sent on Pedri from the bench before the hour mark, and The Wizard’s introduction completely changed the game: Pedri regain control of the game by himself, constantly getting on the ball and making sure his team wouldn’t lose it. That helped slow down Villarreal’s momentum, and the Catalans were back in charge.
- Pedri’s best contribution was still to come, though, as he played an outrageous through ball to find Yamal all alone in front of the goalkeeper, and Lamine completed the first hat-trick of his career with a gorgeous finish to restore Barça’s two-goal lead.
- Flick was able to rest some of his key players in the final minutes with the upcoming game against Atlético Madrid in mind, and Robert Lewandowski added the finishing touch with a tap-in from a Jules Kounde assist in added time to make it 4-1 and send the crowd home happy.
- This was a really a comfortable win in which the Catalans were by far the better side for 80 minutes and earned all three points in impressive fashion. Lamine will deservedly take all the headlines, but this was a really good team performance against one of the top teams in Spain. Another step in the right direction.
