Barcelona’s victory over Deportivo Alaves on Sunday was everything but easy and very different from most of his other victories this season.
The Catalans were forced to work hard during the ninety minutes, first to ensure an advantage and then defend it and make sure they do not give Alaves in any way to the game. A 1-0 victory, in the end, sealed a very necessary for the Blaugrana and gave them three points in the race for the title strictly disputed.
Lamine Yamal, Pedri and Alejandro Balde were the usual outstanding versions of themselves last night, but it was Robert Lewandowski who found the eventual winner with an ending of poachers just after the brand of the hour.
Universal Barça brings you three conversation points of Barcelona 1-0 Deportivo Alaves.
Substitutions that change the game
Barcelona may have entered the field last night knowing that they must win, but their performance in the first half was anything but convincing.
Although Hansi Flick placed one of his strongest XIS available, Barcelona did not create half of the opportunities that he would have liked. They were slow in the accumulation, relatively disconnected in the center of the field and did not seem as threatening as they have done this season.
Once again, Flick’s part -time possibilities were successful since Barcelona improved greatly after the two alterations he made in the half time. The side that went up to the field after the break, in itself, seemed completely transformed.
To begin with, the manager brought Frenkie de Jong for Marc Casado, a change that committed part of the stability in opposition counters for additional control in the center of the field.
Since visitors were not creating a lot of their own threat, the bet only raised the presence of Barcelona in the middle of the park.
The second change that altered the course of the game was to hook Ronald Araujo for Eric García, since he brought better ball control from the back. Playing better from behind after its presentation, the team seemed much more comfortable.
Respect for the Pichichi leader
Robert Lewandowski is far from the way he was at the beginning of the season. In fact, the last time he faced the same opposition this season, he scored a hat-trick in the first half and guided the team at home without help.
He has not proven to be so lethal in front of the goal in recent months, nor was it clinical again on Sunday afternoon. However, one cannot deny that sometimes the clutch appears as it is in the right place at the right time.
On a day when Barcelona could not find a path beyond the low blockade of Alaves, it was the inherent sensation of positioning of the Polish striker that placed it rightly in capitalizing the volley deviated from Lamine Yamal and scoring the only goal at night.
The veteran may have lost a lot of other opportunities, but it was his goal that led the team home with three points.
With 22 games played so far this season, Lewandowski has now scored 18 goals in the league and is in the driver’s seat in Pichichi’s career. Kylian Mbappe has reached and closed the gap to only three goals, but the 36 -year -old continues to advance.
Even registering such figures just after the brand of the middle season at his age is more than impressive, and he deserves praise for what he is doing together with criticism around his inconsistency that he shoots quickly.
Three mass points
Barcelona was left behind in the race for the title after a disastrous towards the end of last year and the Getafe raffle last month did not help its position in any way.
They looked a seven -point deficit from the leaders, Real Madrid, and does not help Meringues Lead Barcelona so dominant despite losing them twice this season.
With Real Madrid losing the three points against Espanyol on Saturday, Barcelona had a sensational opportunity to reduce that deficit to only four points and managed to do exactly that, although after some fight.
After making the most of the rare sliding of Real Madrid, Barcelona now has 45 points after 22 games and are only four points from Real Madrid and three away from Atlético de Madrid.
With the Madrid Derby next weekend and one or both teams ready to drop points, Barcelona is fine and back in the heart of things. After all, they still have games against both teams with headquarters in Madrid in the League.