Tito Sanchez Nunez
Almeria, 26 Feb. Almería surprised Barcelona this Sunday at the Power Horse Stadium (1-0) with a single goal from Bilal Touré in the 24th minute of play, ending the poor series of results of the Almería team, which had accumulated three defeats consecutive, and Ending a double streak for the Barça team, which arrived in Almería with seven consecutive league victories and the same number of victories also in their last seven outings.
This result also prevents Barça from extending its advantage with Real Madrid to ten points, and sees it cut from one to seven.
The pace was slow and without much presence in the areas. The best chance of the first quarter of an hour was a free header from Sergi Roberto, from a cross from Jordi Alba, which went well over Fernando’s goal.
Almería took advantage of the first one they had. Rodrigo Ely recovered against Gavi and sent the ball in search of Bilal. He lowered it to Luis Suárez, who gave it back to him. Bilal won the race from Christensen and found himself alone against Ter Stegen to draw 1-0.
The goal had a positive effect on the Almería team, who a few minutes later managed to score the second from two consecutive corners, one with an acrobatic shot from Léo Baptistao and then with a high header from Rodrigo Ely .
Xavi looked for the reaction on the break, bringing on Raphinha, delaying Gavi in midfield and sacrificing Kessie. The Barça coach also received a yellow card shortly after the start of the second half: it is his fifth this season and he will not be able to sit on the Barça bench in the next match. championship against Valencia.
Barcelona tried to have more presence in the Almería area but still lacked ideas in the final meters, where there was no sign of Lewandowski for the full 90 minutes. Fernando got ahead of Sergi Roberto after a pipe from Raphinha then the winger himself ended a cross from the left badly.
It was Raphinha again who was close, after a center from the left that the Brazilian just missed. Just before, Almería had taken advantage of an opportunity to increase their income, but Luis Suárez’s shot ended up being deflected from a corner.
Barça tightened at times. Babic disrupted a counter as De Jong headed towards goal. Even so, Barça’s first shot between the three sticks of the whole game came in the 82nd minute, with a shot from Alarcón which Fernando saved.
The Barcelona team finished with Araújo as a centre-forward. The Uruguayan was close to chasing down a Ferran Torres cross but he didn’t succeed either. Almería finished with a defense of six and even missed an Embarba one-on-one against Ter Stegen to make it 2-0.
– Data sheet
1 – UD Almeria: Fernando; Chumi, Rodrigo Ely, Babic, Akieme; Eguaras (Álex Pozo, min. 82), De la Hoz, Robertone (Ramazani, min. 75); Léo Baptistao (Samú Costa, min. 82), Luis Suárez (Embarba, min. 75) and Bilal (Kaiky, min. 89).
0 – FC Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Sergi Roberto (Pablo Torre, min. 75), Christensen, Eric García (Araújo, min. 67), Jordi Alba (Marcos Alonso, min. 67); Sergio Busquets (Alarcón, min. 75), Kessie (Raphinha, min. 46), Frenkie de Jong; Gavi, Ferran Torres and Lewandowski.
Referee: Ortiz Arias, from the Madrid committee. Yellow cards to Robertone, Chumi and Fernando for Almeria and Eric Garcia, Raphinha and Gavi for Barcelona. He also warned Blues coach Xavi.
Goal: 1-0, min. 24: Bilal.
Incidents: Match of the 23rd day of LaLiga Santander, played at the Power Horse Stadium (Almería), 15,279 spectators. ECE
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