Barcelona climb to second in LaLiga with comfortable win at Atletico Madrid
Robert Lewandowski played a starring role as Barcelona moved up to second place in LaLiga with a 3-0 win at Atletico Madrid.
Lewandowski set up on-loan forward Joao Felix to open the scoring against his parent club and doubled his side’s lead just 80 seconds into the second half.
The prolific Poland international then provided the cross for Fermin Lopez to head in the third in the 65th minute as Barca took full advantage of Girona’s defeat at Getafe on Saturday to move above them in the table.
FULL TIME!!! pic.twitter.com/6sNGCleQ71
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) March 17, 2024
Barcelona coach Xavi was sent off shortly before half-time for repeated dissent towards the referee, but he will have been delighted with his side’s performance after a slow start.
The home side enjoyed the upper hand in a low-key opening to the contest, with Pablo Barrios curling a shot inches wide of the post from outside the area in the sixth minute.
A dangerous cross from Samuel Lino was then turned behind by Pau Cubarsi as Alvaro Morata failed to flick the ball in at the near post and it took until the 35th minute for Barcelona to register a meaningful attempt on goal.
Lewandowski picked out Raphinha with a superb cross but the Brazilian glanced his header wide, with replays showing he may well have been narrowly offside.
Joao Felix
That at least sparked the visitors into life and, seconds after Lopez brought a sharp save out of Jan Oblak at his near post with a low drive, the deadlock was broken in fine style.
Ilkay Gundogan found Lewandowski in the left-hand side of the area and the 35-year-old turned sharply before pulling the ball back for Felix to sidefoot home.
Despite seeing his side take the lead, Xavi was becoming increasingly irate with some of
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