Barça Winter Champions 2025 | La Liga Title Race

And the game started with Villarreal threatening. Barça does not have a double face, it always moves forward and this time it ran into an opponent that it was not going to expect. Marcelino surprised with an advanced pressure that gave the culés problems and turned the first part of the match into an exchange of blows. Pepé and Ayoze forgave two clear chances after losses when Flick’s men started from behind and finally it was Barça who struck after a clear penalty on Raphinha. The Brazilian converted the maximum penalty and applied anesthesia to a Cerámica that until then seemed like it was going to explode into a thousand pieces.

The goal was an injection for Barça to continue believing in Flick’s plan. The German continued with the block of the last games and barely introduced De Jong, forced by Pedri’s injury, and Fermín in the midfield. They were two variations that did not alter the roadmap of a team in which verticality in starting from behind and mobility in the attacking front prevailed.

Especially striking was the performance of Raphinha, who started from the left, but caused the penalty on the right and burst the crossbar from the front. The Brazilian was omnipresent, the biggest threat in the first half of a Barça that never stopped being on the ledge due to the vertigo of Villarreal and that arrived at half-time with Joan García saving the furniture after a mistake by Balde and seeing how Renato Veiga sent himself off after a hard tackle on Lamine Yamal.

By crushing

After the restart the game was within the time that Villarreal’s power could last. Marcelino’s men gave up a few meters, but withstood the Catalans’ push thanks to the continuous help from Comesaña and Parejo to the sides and also thanks to Luiz Junior, who saved two shots from Lamine Yamal and Fermín as soon as they left the locker room. Barça was in charge, but they made a mistake in the last pass to a Ferran who had disappeared between the centre-backs.

Flick knew it, and he took the opportunity to use all the gunpowder he had on the bench. Lewandowski and Rashford entered and, immediately afterwards, almost by crushing, the second goal arrived after a series of rebounds that ended at the feet of Lamine Yamal so that the ’10’ finished with control and a strike typical of futsal. Plant and toe to silence the whistles of a stadium that had taken it upon itself after the expulsion of Renato Veiga.

It was the final straw for a Villarreal that never gave up, but that sometimes ran into Joan García, other times with its own mistakes and other times with the punch of a Barça that closes the year on a high note, with eight straight victories in the League and with its stars being decisive in both areas.