The youngest acts as the most expert. On the day that the oldest was missing, the kid showed up. Perhaps the one who could be asked the least was the one who carried the team on his back to get Barcelona out of the mess. The leader returned to winning ways in the game that Lamine Yamal returned to the starting eleven. The outside of the youth squad’s left foot marks the Barcelona path.
He didn’t score any of the five goals and was still the best. That is the greatness of a chosen one, even after injury. With a forced penalty, an assist in the third and scoring the fourth goal, the winger returned through the front door and secured the first position for a Barça that had two faces.
At the beginning of the game he was reliable and mature, a version that he recovered in the second half and that was what gave him the victory. But for many minutes he was lost in the vertigo and rush, a profile that did not help him and complicated his life. Until Lamine Yamal appeared and made sense.
Instead of leaving worried about emergencies after three days without winning, the Blaugrana entered the field with clear ideas and renewed desire. Flick, far from being pressured, believed that it was time, after 20 consecutive starts, to give Lewandowski a rest.
The return of Dani Olmo and Lamine Yamal to the eleven had to mitigate the absence of the top scorer in attack.
But above all in that start, Barça was grateful for the return of Casadó in the center of the field and the triangle he formed with Pedri and Casadó inside to circulate the ball. From that engine room the visitors grew, taking over the first moments. Suddenly, they seemed to have regained their lost freshness. Even Mallorca saw their goal disallowed for offside.
Furthermore, to finish off being a perfect exit for Barcelona, the locals gave them the advantage on a plate. Goalkeeper Leo Román did not understand his center backs and Ferran Torres, Lewandowski’s replacement, appeared opportunistically. The shark caught fish in a harmless move. Stumbling, the Valencian’s shot ended up meekly in the net as it hit the legs of Valjent and also goalkeeper Román.
However, that goal did not consolidate all the good that the League leader was doing but instead tried to close the game on the fast track.
If Barcelona made its rivals constantly fall into the offside trap at the beginning of the season, this time it was the Blaugrana (in green in Son Moix) who were tempted again and again to have meters to run behind the Mallorca defense. Seeing the feeling of danger so close, seeing that highway all for themselves was precisely the bait that the Blaugrana took.
Because when what interested him was the pause, he started to accelerate. When order suited him, he became fond of chaos. At the same time that Barcelona wanted to run, they were breaking down. The faster and more direct the ball goes towards the opponent’s area, the sooner it returns and with more danger. It is a law of football thermodynamics.
Barça was about to make good on that myth of “live fast and leave a pretty corpse.” Because it was believed that they were going to seal the score in the first half and before the break what came was the tie.
Barça subscribed to speed. As little as they could, they raised their heads and hung the ball. Although that meant not defining or choosing well. Raphinha and Lamine Yamal imitated the play that Alba and Messi repeated so many times. The center from the left to the penalty spot was traced but the youth player’s shot was not good. Always on the run, not even the Blaugrana forwards could get it right in a three-on-one counterattack after a corner in favor of Mallorca. And Ferran was left without an angle in another counterattack.
But each missed opportunity meant an approach by a Mallorca, who began to break the line with second line unmarkings from Darder or Samú Costa. Until Cubarsí could not cut off an inside pass and Maffeo entered the correct position to give up Muriqi. The Kosovar scored into an empty net to make it 1-1 on the stroke of half-time. A tie that Raphinha could not break when Raíllo ate a long ball. The Brazilian, with his right, ran into Leo Román, who frustrated him.
Barça recomposed itself in the dugout and understood that it could not play by exchanging blows, that its thing is to control and dominate the games. And the second half was a Barcelona monologue precisely because Lamine Yamal, the youngest, showed his sanity to save a complicated situation.
The 17-year-old winger, not yet at his peak of explosiveness, was surgical because he is the smartest and because he has sublime technical quality. First, forcing a penalty from Mojica, who knocked down Lamine Yamal when he had gained the position and was going to shoot alone against Román.
In the absence of specialist Lewandowski, who did not even warm up, the maximum penalty was converted by Raphinha. He is in a state of form that allowed him to present himself as a nine in the small area to an excellent (yet another) center with the outside of Lamine Yamal to make the third.
The two goals from distance took their toll on Mallorca, who lowered their arms. The game broke down, which two of the freshmen took advantage of to score. The fourth was the work of Frenkie de Jong, who acted as a midfielder and needed it. The fifth was signed by Pau Víctor, who deserved it. Barça looked like the one I had fallen in love with for a long time because Lamine Yamal came into action.
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