Barcelona 3-0 Mallorca, La Liga: Recap

Barcelona have opened up a temporary four-point gap at the top of the La Liga standings thanks to a strong 3-0 win against Mallorca at Camp Nou on Saturday afternoon. After a tough start the Blaugrana were in complete control in the final 60 minutes, and Robert Lewandowski, Lamine Yamal and Marc Bernal found the net as the Catalans sealed a big win in front of the home crowd.

Reactions & Observations

• The story of the first 30 minutes of the game was Jan Virgili: the former Barça winger was quite simply unplayable to start the contest, using his pace and skill to win pretty much every duel against whatever defender was on him, and he created at least three massive chances by himself. Mallorca should have taken the lead, but a combination of bad luck and poor finishing stopped them from going ahead.
• Barça finally woke up and started to create danger of their own thanks in large part to Marcus Rashford, who was the brightest and most active of the Blaugrana attackers and came very close a couple of times before one of his shots from outside the box was saved by the goalkeeper and the rebound fell to Robert Lewandowski, who showed his composure in front of goal and gave the home team the lead.
• The Catalans finished the half as the stronger team, and should have doubled their advantage just before the break when Rashford’s free-kick was saved by Leo Román and Jules Kounde found Lamine Yamal all alone with an open net in front of him at the far post, but the teenager somehow missed one of the easiest chances he’ll ever have and Barça had to settle for a 1-0 lead at halftime.
• Barça were able to build on the momentum from the end of the first half and dominated the second period, and should have had a penalty when Yamal was clearly fouled by Johan Mojica inside the box right in front of the referee, but both the on-field official and VAR completely ignored a very obvious penalty.
• Marc Casadó almost doubled the lead when he hit the crossbar with a strike from the edge of the area, but Barça finally found the net for the second time thanks to a gorgeous long-distance shot by Yamal at the hour mark.
• But the best goal was saved for a substitute: after a truly breathtaking passing sequence from the back to break the Mallorca press, Marc Bernal was played through on goal and showed incredible composure to sit down his defender inside the box and find the net to finish a remarkable team goal in glorious fashion.
• Another great moment was the debut of promising La Masia midfielder Tommy Marqués, who come on with 10 minutes to go and got a very nice reception from the home crowd.
• Not everything was perfect, though, as Barça gave the ball away in bad positions a couple of times and Joan Garcia was forced into action to make sure he’d keep a clean sheet. Other than that the second half was truly a joy to watch, and the final whistle came to seal a really good win for the home team.
• Barça were really good in the final hour of the match, and the second half was really, really strong. Flick was able to rest some key players ahead of a big Cup tie with Atlético Madrid, Marc Bernal’s goal was incredible, and Barça will remain top of the table for another week. A pretty good Saturday, if you ask me.