Barcelona remained perfect to begin the new La Liga season and finished off the first month of the Hansi Flick Era with their fourth win in a row thanks to a spectacular 7-0 victory over Real Valladolid at the Montjuïc Olympic Stadium on Saturday. The Blaugrana dominated from start to finish and relentlessly destroyed the newly-promoted side at home, and will go into the first international break of the season as the only perfect team in Spain’s top flight thanks to an otherwordly team performance and a hat-trick by a brilliant Raphinha.....CONTINUE READING THE ARTICLE FROM THE SOURCE
Barça played a virtually flawless opening period, establishing their dominance early and never relinquishing control of the game thanks to superb play on the ball and suffocating pressing out of possession.
The Blaugrana moved the ball quickly and with purpose, creating chances early and often and never suffering on the other end.Dani Olmo could have scored twice in the first 10 minutes, but hit the post with his first chance and had a goal disallowed for a very narrow offside.
But Barça’s relentless pressure paid off 10 minutes later when an outrageous assist by Pau Cubarsí and a gorgeous finish by Raphinha gave the home team the lead.
Robert Lewandowski doubled the advantage just four minutes later thanks to a beautiful assist from Lamine Yamal, and the Blaugrana were in cruise control midway through the period. But they never stopped going forward, and Olmo hit the post again as Barça continued to search for more goals.
Marc-Andre ter Stegen was called into action once in the entire half and made a solid save one-on-one with Raúl Moro, and Valladolid were maid to pay for missing their only chance just before halftime when a corner by Raphinha fell kindly to Jules Kounde inside the box, and the Frenchman fired it home off the post to triple Barça’s lead going into the break.
