La Liga: Yamal brace leads Barcelona to 4-1 win over Girona, continue winning start

Girona (Spain), Sep 15 (IANS) FC Barcelona blew their neighbours, Girona aside and took a 4-1 victory in the Catalonian Derby at the Estadi Montilivi here on Sunday. Barca had Lamine Yamal to thank for both first-half goals. The first came from nowhere. When the teenager pounced on David Lopez and won the ball. Yamal stunned Montilivi with a well-struck finish and followed that up with a second goal just seven minutes later.

The home defence did a poor job of clearing a free kick, and the man of the moment was waiting on the edge of the area to collect the ball, pick his spot, and slot it deftly home.

Girona had hardly attacked the Barcelona defence until Ter Stegen produced the save of the day to deny Bryan Gil from point-blank range and immediately after was preparing to face a penalty after Inigo Martinez handled in the area.

VAR came to the rescue there, the decision was turned around and instead Barca extended their lead immediately after the restart when Jules Kounde adeptly picked out Dani Olmo, and the new signing slammed in from close range.

Barcelona were on a roll, and there could have been more goals, particularly from Robert Lewandowski, before Pedri did make it 4-0, the Canary Islander converting a splendid through ball from young Marc Casado.

It was proving to be a tough afternoon for Girona. But they did have something to celebrate when they snatched a late consolation goal from the foot of Cristhian Stuani.

Ferran Torres was punished with a direct red card for a rather feisty challenge on Yaser Asprilla in the 86th minute but the game was already over by then.

But neither of those late twists were going to have much impact on Sunday’s script. By that stage, the game was more than over. Barca, by far the better team, had already done more than enough to win back the bragging rights in the Catalan derby.

That’s a perfect five wins from five games for the league leaders, and eleven goals to no reply in the last two outings. Things couldn’t be looking better for the side as it goes into the first week of the Champions League campaign, with Monaco away to come on Thursday.

–IANS

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