BARCELONA, Spain (AP) – Lamine Yamal once again showed his ability to decide matches when Barcelona’s teenage star broke the deadlock with a brilliant shot to seal a 1-0 win against Athletic Bilbao on Saturday.
The match saw Athletic attack in waves at the San Mamés stadium, with Yamal tilting the game in favor of the La Liga leaders.
The 18-year-old Spanish forward received a pass from Pedri González and eventually left room to work on the right side of the area, opening up a shooting angle with one touch and curling his left foot into the top of the post.
The winning goal in the 68th minute gave coach Hansi Flick’s team a four-point lead over second-placed Real Madrid and successfully defended their domestic title. Final episode, Yamaru Scored your first hat trick They won the league with a 4-1 victory over Villarreal.
His 19 goals this season are already one more than he scored in all of last season.
“We know what Lamine can do. He just scored in the corner where the goalkeeper couldn’t reach,” Pedri said. “The only thing he has to avoid is being satisfied with what he’s already done. He just needs to keep working hard to give his all.”
The hard-fought away win at the Basque club came four days after Barcelona. Lost in the Copa del Rey semifinals To Atlético Madrid.
Flick rested some of his regular starters ahead of Barcelona traveling to Newcastle to start their Champions League round of 16 match on Tuesday. Pedri, Rafinha and Fermin López remained on the bench until the final 30 minutes. Marcus Rashford, Marc Bernal and Marc Casado started in their place.
Eric Garcia and Joao Cancelo also started in place of injured full-backs Jules Kounde and Alejandro Balde.
Barcelona needed goalkeeper João Garcia to keep the match scoreless until Yamal scored.
Atlético wins Copa final preview
In a match between the two Copa del Rey finalists, Atlético Madrid defeated Real Sociedad 3-2 with Argentine midfielder Nico González scoring twice in the second half.
Sociedad defeated Athletic Bilbao in the semi-finals earlier this week and also qualified for next month’s cup final in Sevilla.
Atlético sporting director Mateu Alemany said: Antoine Griezmann ends the season He signed with the Spanish club, quashing speculation that a move to Major League Soccer was imminent for the veteran forward.
Demichelis’ debut work
In the Argentine’s first game as manager, Martin Demichelis watched his new team Mallorca waste a double from striker Vedat Muriqui and end up drawing 2-2 at Osasuna.
Muriqui has scored 18 goals in La Liga this season, second only to Real Madrid star Kylian Mbappé’s 23 goals.
However, Osasuna scored in the 89th minute through Quique Barja, and Ante Budimir equalized in stoppage time.
Demichelis replaced Jagoba Arrasate, who was released last week at Mallorca, who were on the brink of relegation despite having one of the league’s best strikers in Muriqui.
Girona’s Joel Roca also scored in stoppage time to secure a 1-1 draw with Levante.
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