Barcelona are back on top of the La Liga table for at least the next 24 hours thanks to a hard-fought 3-1 victory against Deportivo Alavés at the Spotify Camp Nou on Saturday afternoon. The Blaugrana had a bad start and conceded in the very first minute, but Raphinha returned to the starting lineup with a vengeance and played a decisive role along with Dani Olmo as the Catalans came from behind to secure an important win at home.
Reactions & Observations
- Nightmare start for Barça as nobody marks two Alavés players after a corner and Pablo Ibáñez has an easy tap-in.
- Quick response thanks to a great finish by Lamine Yamal. The pre-assist by Alejandro Balde and the perfectly weighted cross by Raphinha were the highlights.
- Raphinha… HOLY COW. He clearly missed being away from the starting XI for two months and was an absolute beast in the first half. He was everywhere, pressing like a madman, running in behind the defense to create passing options, and assisting Dani Olmo with a perfect pass to put Barça in front.
- Alavés had two big chances to equalize, but Joan Garcia made a sensational save and Gerard Martín made a miracle block inside the box.
- Speaking of Martín, he had a big hand to play in Barça’s second goal and had a very good overall half. He’s starting to look more and more comfortable at center-back, and his left foot creates so many options in possession that he’s starting to become a real asset in that position.
- Marc Bernal returned to the starting lineup for the first time in 15 months, and you could tell: the youngster was clearly off the pace and struggled to keep up with the speed of the game, and while he had a couple of good passes and movements in midfield he was pretty non-existent for most of the half. That’s completely fine, by the way. Again, first start in 15 months.
- Raphinha departed after 60 sublime minutes to a deserved ovation. What a performance.
- Barça had two giant chances to put the game away for good, but Yamal missed one just before halftime and Olmo missed the other midway through the second half. The Catalans played better in the final period and Alavés did very little going forward, but Barça couldn’t kill the game off and it was still undecided with 10 minutes remaining.
- Alavés came close a couple of times to creating a big chance to equalize, but Barça’s offside trap worked well at the end and stopped the visitors from having any real hope of a late upset.
- Yamal found Olmo inside the box, Dani found the net, and Barça finally secured the win in the 94th minute.
- This was far from a vintage performance, but Alavés have a very good defense and Barça created enough to score at least four or five goals against them. It’s a solid win and three big points, and we move on to a monster clash with Atlético Madrid on Tuesday.
