The Barcelona keeps the pulse with Real Madrid and will sleep leader of LaLiga Santander by defeating Mallorca 0-1 this Saturday in Son Moix despite the numerous casualties due to the ‘FIFA virus’ and the difficulties posed by the Mexican team Javier Aguirre in some phases of the match.
Robert Lewandowski sealed Barça’s sixth victory in the championship, the seventh consecutive in Balearic territory since 2009. The Pole consolidated his status as top scorer in the championship with his ninth goal in seven games. Everything went round for Barcelona on the island.
Xavi continues without losing away from home in the domestic competition since eleven months ago he sat on the bench and the German goalkeeper Ter Stegen broke his unbeaten record with more than 555 minutes without picking up a ball from the back of the net. Barça, with or without casualties, is a fearsome rival.
against casualties
It did not matter that the eleven was plagued by unusual footballers. Piqué, Jordi Alba and Ansu Fati returned to the starting lineup, Balde played converted to right-back to replace the injured Ronald Araújo. Xabi had to complete the squad list with three players from the reserve team and one from the youth team to replace those injured after international commitments. The one who does not rest is Lewandowski.
Mallorca’s defense, with three central defenders according to Aguirre’s board since his arrival, took pains to try to keep him from playing a leading role in the area. But all precautions failed against a “tremendous scorer, a killer from the area,” as the Mexican coach defined him in the match preview.
The script of the crash was as planned. Overwhelming Barça possession and Mallorcan pressure in search of genius from the South Korean Kang In Lee, a midfielder specializing in creating spaces and the ideal complement for “Pirate” Muriqi.
The Kosovar, vermilion’s top scorer with 3 goals, one of them in the defeat (4-1) against Madrid at the Bernabeú, did not have his night and hardly got any balls. “Vasco” Aguirre’s plan to deal with the Barça machinery lasted 20 minutes, which Lewandowski needed to beat Serbian goalkeeper Predrag Rajkovic with a tight, low right-footed shot that hit the post. It was a precise, definitive definition, just in the moments of greatest equality on the pitch.
The Pole’s goal silenced Son Moix and allowed Barça to take command of the match. Xavi’s revolutionary line-up was reflected in a couple of actions that exposed some anomalies in a Barca defense of circumstances, with Balde converted to right back -in the second half he returned to his natural position-
I hammered together with Christensen and Jordi Alba on the left at the start and on the right after the restart. The tireless Sergi Busquets directed the actions in the center of the field, guarded by Kessie and Gavi; At the top, the trident was formed by Dembelé, Lewandowski and Ansu Fati, the latter one of the novelties in the Barça ranks and replaced by the Brazilian Rapinha in the second half. One of the holes in the visiting defense forced Ter Stegen to work hard when Valencian defender Jaume Costa finished off Antonio Sánchez’s cross from the right from point-blank range.
The German goalkeeper saved his team, as on so many other occasions, but that action convinced Mallorca that, if applied, they had options, at least, to equalize the score. The first part ended with a festival of yellow cards -Christensen, Piqué, Kessie and Jaume Costa saw it- and a red card. Barça’s second coach, Óscar Hernández, was sent off with a direct red card for protesting.
The slight advantage of Xavi’s team conditioned the resumption of the game. Barça sought the sentence, kept possession of the ball, but always looking askance at a Mallorca that did not give up in its efforts to score. Rapinha, Sergi Roberto and Fran Torres joined Barça in a final stretch played at a hectic pace. Mallorca tried everything -with the Ivorian Lago Junior as a stiletto- in search of the tables in an electric epilogue in which the Barcelona team, after overcoming the scare in a cross shot by Kang In Lee that did not find an auctioneer, pulled from experience to secure the sixth consecutive victory of the championship.
EFE
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