Barcelona will visit their Catalan rivals on Sunday evening (September 15) in round 5 of La Liga 2024-2025. Girona have a 3-match unbeaten streak against Barca, most recently a 4-2 win at the Municipal de Montilivi stadium last May in La Liga.
But in the latest match, Barcelona - of Hansi Flick, not Xavi Hernandez, paid back both principal and interest, with a brilliant performance from Lamine Yamal.
The match was tight with the game balanced for more than half of the first half. Girona lost some of the pillars of the impressive 2023-2024 season to qualify for the Champions League, but they have confidence.
But the turning point for the home team's collapse was also due to that overconfidence, when David Lopez received the ball from the goalkeeper in the penalty area, dribbled under pressure from Yamal and was robbed. The best young player of EURO 2024 did not miss the opportunity to score the opening goal in the 30th minute.
Just 7 minutes later, Yamal continued with an accurate shot after a pass from Robert Lewandowski. The U23 player of the month scored his 3rd goal in La Liga this season.
The home team tried to attack and they had a number of chances, including the referee giving Barcelona a penalty for the ball hitting Jules Kounde's hand. However, after reviewing the VAR, the referee determined that there was no penalty under the new law (the ball hit another player and then hit Kounde's hand).
Early in the second half, Kounde himself passed the ball to Dani Olmo, who scored a cross-angle shot to raise the score to 3-0 for Barcelona. The Spanish midfielder also scored his third goal in La Liga in three consecutive matches.
The gap was big enough for Barca to play comfortably but still score more goals. In the 64th minute, young player Marca Casado made an excellent pass for Pedri to break through, surpassing goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga to score the fourth goal.
Barca's match did not end perfectly when in the last 10 minutes, they received 1 goal and a direct red card for Ferran Torres (minute 86) - a player who had just entered the field in minute 69.
Winning 4-1, Barcelona firmly holds the top spot with 15 points after 5 wins. The next 3 teams are Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid and Villarreal with 11 points each.
