Barcelona have temporarily extended their lead at the top of the La Liga table to seven points thanks to a hard-fought 1-0 win over Mallorca at the Montjuïc Olympic Stadium on Tuesday night. Barça played a brilliant attacking game and created enough chances to win by a much wider margin, but a little bit of bad luck and a fantastic performance by Mallorca goalkeeper Leo Román forced the Catalans to settle for only a one-goal win, though the three points are all that matter as they remain in control of a tight title race.
FIRST HALF
It is truly difficult to remember a more unjust result at halftime of a Barça game in recent memory. Despite the many changes to his usual lineup, Hansi Flick saw his team play a spectacular half on offense, absolutely dominating the possession and territory and creating chance after chance after chance with some amazing movement and incisive passing in the final third.
Ansu Fati grabbed a rare chance to start with both hands and was hugely involved in the attack, making constant runs to stretch the Mallorca backline, firing shots from distance and linking up with his teammates at the edge of the box. Dani Olmo, Pedri and Lamine Yamal showed their usual magic, creating for themselves and their teammates with their combination of skill and vision.
But they simply could not find a way to score against the Mallorca defense. And it wasn’t for a lack of trying: the Catalans fired a total of 24 shots in the period, hitting the woodwork once, and having at least six shots either masterfully saved by goalkeeper Leo Román or blocked at the line by the Mallorca center-backs.
Ronald Araujo also missed a golden chance on a rebound from a Román save that he completely miskicked despite having an open net, and the Blaugrana almost went into the break down 1-0 when Mateu Morey found the net for the visitors, but he was caught by Barça’s offside trap and the goal was ruled out.
The final whistle came to end a first half that should have ended with at least a three-goal lead for the home team after a sensational performance, but they still had work to do to find the winning goals in the final period.
SECOND HALF
Any fears that Barça had perhaps missed too many chances in the first half were erased just 45 seconds into the second half, thanks to a great assist by Eric García and a beautiful finish from Dani Olmo to finally break the deadlock for the home team.
Barça could have capitalized on the momentum from the opener and gone for the knockout punch to put the game to bed, but the Catalans relaxed a little too much and lost the level of intensity they had shown up until the goal. That allowed Mallorca to grow into the contest, and the visitors slowly but surely started to take some risks and create a little danger on the counter.
Despite Barça’s dominance the game was still uncomfortably up for grabs as we reached the final 15 minutes, and the Blaugrana badly needed a second goal to settle things. They got a huge chance when Pedri played Yamal through on goal with an outrageous pass, but the teenager missed a golden one-on-one chance and fired straight at Román.
The Mallorca shot-stopper continued to make saves and his teammates continued to block shots at the line to stop Barça from getting that second goal, and the Blaugrana’s lead was still narrow going into the dying seconds. The hosts did a good job of running out the clock, however, and the final whistle came to give them all three points.
On another night this could have very easily been a memorable 6-0 or 7-1 win, because the performance was truly that good. But football can be weird sometimes, and it’s better to be on the right side of a 1-0 when you dominate the whole game instead of inexplicably losing it.
The Copa del Rey Final is next, and Barça can go into it with many key players rested and a very strong performance to build upon. Well done, boys!
Barcelona: Szczesny; Eric, Araujo, Iñigo, Fort (Martín 77’); Gavi, Pedri; Yamal (De Jong 87’), Olmo (Fermín 62’), Fati (Raphinha 62’); Ferran (Víctor 77’)
Goal: Olmo (46’)
Mallorca: Román; Morey, Valjent, Raillo, Copete, Mojica (Lato 81’); Sánchez (Valery 81’), Mascarell (Salas 86’), Samu (Domenech 66’), Darder; Larin (Abdón 86’)
Goals: None
