Barça recovers its smile with Lamine Yamal

Barça reunited with itself this Tuesday. The team led by Hansi Flick overwhelmed Mallorca in Son Moix in a match in which the culés recovered their sensations, once again had their punch and returned to the path of victory. The goals from Raphinha, on two occasions, Ferran Torres, Frenkie de Jong and Pau Víctor renew confidence in the Barça project and put pressure on a Real Madrid that visits San Mamés this Wednesday with the obligation to win.

The game put more than three points at stake for Barcelona and that tension ran everywhere. The culés arrived at Son Moix with faces of concentration and with a surprise in the eleven. Flick left out Lewandowski and gave the alternative to Ferran Torres at the top along with the other fantastic three. The Pole “had to rest,” said the German coach, who in the process opted to renew the pressure in the opposite field with a player who had to run from side to side until suffocating Mallorca. And Ferran did it and was one more in a Barça team that entered the game very involved and matched the intensity of a rival that always wins duels.

Barça managed to ensure that the only way out for Jagoba Arrasate’s men was long balls, a strategy with which they gave two scares at the start that ended with two offsides. Once that objective was achieved, the Blaugranas settled through the ball. Pedri was comfortable and Flick’s entire team improved around him. A problem arose from his pass between the lines for Mallorca, who resolved the problem in the worst possible way. Between Mojica and Valjent they failed to clear the ball and Ferran Torres appeared to take the lead and open the scoring.

It was the beginning of a real train wreck. Barça was not going to lower the intensity, Flick was not going to allow it, and neither was a Mallorca that has in its DNA to fight for each ball as if it were the last. Ferran Torres and Lamine Yamal forgave two clear chances and the Balearic team sparked dispute after dispute. The two warnings that ended in offside as soon as the match began were the prelude to another identical play in which this time fortune did not smile on the culés. Maffeo appeared like a flash to break the Barça line and assist Muriqi, who only had to send the ball into the back of the net at will to equalize the goal before going through the locker room.

After the restart, Barça came out very energized. The culés managed to have more presence between the lines thanks to Dani Olmo’s position behind the midfielders and there began to be a duel that ended the first half evenly. The former Leipzig player is one more problem for rivals and that is a lot when you have to divide your attention among so much talent. In one of those actions, Dani Olmo found Lamine Yamal with space to run and the youth player played tricks to put his body between Mojica and the ball so that the Colombian could overwhelm him in the area. Raphinha did not forgive the maximum penalty and gave wings to a Barça that once again had the helm of the match.

With an advantage on the scoreboard, Flick took the opportunity to introduce fresh legs. Pau Víctor and Frenkie de Jong entered, a player for whom the German coach is still looking for a place. This time he played in the midfield and shone in an extraordinary final stretch for Barcelona. From there he had a luxurious view of the two outside passes that Lamine Yamal pulled out of his hat to assist Raphinha in the third goal and generate the fourth that De Jong himself scored. The Dutchman was in all of them and his arrival from the second line was completed by Pau Víctor to score the fifth and put the culmination of a great afternoon for Barça on the island, the day the Blaugranas regained their smile.