NOS Football••Amended
Barcelona, the leader in Spain, has once again distanced itself from pursuer Real Madrid, which had difficulty beating Sevilla 2-0 on Saturday. The Catalans won 2-0 at Villarreal.
Barcelona allowed itself quite a few mistakes in the first half, which promptly led to opportunities for Villarreal, which is fourth in the rankings but still has two matches in hand. However, the home team did not get around to punishing.
The leader himself only needed one golden opportunity to open the score. The referee saw a foul in Raphinha’s dive over Santi Comesana’s barely outstretched leg, after which the ‘victim’ took the penalty himself: 0-1.
Yellow Submarine
After fifteen minutes Raphinha almost doubled the lead. His long shot sailed towards the intersection, but ricocheted off the crossbar. A lucky break for ‘El Submarino Amarillo’ (The Yellow Submarine), who was less lucky shortly before half time when Renato Veiga attacked Lamine Yamal. The tackle from behind was punished with a red card.
After just over an hour, Barcelona decided the game, although again no flowing attack preceded it. After some half or blocked shots, Frenkie de Jong kept the overview. The captain put the ball back to Lamine Yamal, who found the corner with a controlled effort: 0-2.
Despite being down, Villarreal, which was already dealing with a long list of absentees due to injuries and the African Cup, saw the opportunity to occasionally take aim at the Barcelona goal. Goalkeeper Joan Garcia, who is keeping Marc-André ter Stegen, who has returned from injury, on the bench for the time being, was always ready.
