Hat-trick hero Robert Lewandowski sent Barcelona to a dominant 3-0 win over Deportivo Alavés
A brilliant show from Barcelona created a highly convincing 3-0 La Liga victory over the visiting Deportivo Alavés, with superstar Robert Lewandowski scoring all the three goals for his team within the first half of the match. The Polish forward was just superb and his contribution told the tale of an occasion where Barcelona played out more chances to win. With this win, Barcelona consolidates the top end of the La Liga table, while Alavés found it tough to pull off some strongly competitive games against their La Liga champions.
Opening Half: Lewandowski’s Class
As soon as the referee blew the whistle to get underway, this Barcelona side made their intentions clear, coming out to assert possession, dominate and push forward with intent. No surprise that it took them only 7 minutes of the game to score the opening goal, Robert Lewandowski headed into the fray, responding to a wonderful cross by Raphinha.
Lewandowski enjoyed another dream opportunity each time the ball fell to him. He doubled his haul with another sound header that summed up his customary opportunism in the 22nd minute, being orchestrated this time by Raphinha. Bad news, however, for Alavés was that these two were composed, posing a problem to their defense with their flowing attacking play that was very fast and varied.
Lewandowski finally completed his hat-trick in the 32nd minute. This time, Eric Garcia’s perfectly timed pass caught Lewandowski in space with no mistake to make as he calmly slotted the ball into the bottom corner. With three goals inside the first 32 minutes, Barcelona were totally in control of the match and Alavés had no reply to Lewandowski’s clinical finishing.
Deportivo Alavés Struggles to Counterattack
Even when Barcelona were winning handsomely, however, Deportivo Alavés could hardly create any openings to counterattack. The hosts, throughout the game, managed to score only two shots on target as a result of a very well-organized defense of Barcelona. The forwards of Alavés were starved of service, and Stoichkov and Mourino, in particular, could hardly put any serious pressure on Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen.
Alavés could not get the ball out as they only made 233 passes whereas Barcelona had an enormous difference, 658. This meant that Alavés were held back into their half for most of the game and therefore could gain no momentum whatsoever. It was hard for Alavés to gather any type of rhythm due to Barcelona’s pressing and quick recovery of the ball.
Control in the Second Half By Barcelona
With the 3-0 comfortable lead at halftime, Barcelona slowed down the rhythm of the game in the second half, paying more attention to possession and control of the game. Manager Xavi Hernández made a few changes to give some of the key players more rest and bring some fresh legs in during the game. In the 67th minute, Ansu Fati and Jules Koundé were brought in on the field, while Frenkie de Jong replaced Alejandro Balde in the later stages of the game.
Barcelona kept possession for most of the game with 72% possession rate in the end. The team didn’t really alter its game plan much in the second half. The Catalans were not so vocal, but still, they secured a few scoring chances. Alavés goalie, Fernando Pacheco, made crucial saves to prevent further degrading: some of the big saves were into the face of Ansu Fati and Ferran Torres shots.
Barça’s Defence Copes Well
But Lewandowski must have been a cheerful man having received all the focus since the other half of Barcelona’s game in defense was equally responsible for winning the game. Solid defense at the back was more than courtesy of Eric Garcia, who set up a third goal by not providing Alavés with any space at all. The center back combination involving Andreas Christensen were good throughout the game as they neutralized the attacking phase that Alavés had to offer.
In midfield, de Jong and Oriol Romeu also demonstrated a bright performance as they managed to win crucial duels and intercepted passes in order to help the backbone of the team.
At each moment that Alavés sought to ignite some counter-attacks, the defensive shape of the Barcelona team would put off the fire of such attacks by the home side and deprive them of some opportunities to transform these chances into goals on the scoreboard.
Key Statistics and Tactical Breakdown
Possession Dominance: At the end of the match, possession stood at 72% in favor of Barcelona. They proved their superiority by dominating the midfield as they made 658 passes to just 233 by Alavés.
Clinical Finishing: It is plain and simple that the three goals scored from the nine shots on target meant that Robert Lewandowski was getting clinical finishings done. Fifteen shots in total were produced by the Blaugrana, while Alavés could only come with eleven, but what made the difference was the finishing for whom the former are clinical, and the latter aren’t.
Defensive solidity: Barcelona could hardly grant Alavés two touches in the box throughout the whole 90 minutes. Their defense was well-articulated as that saw 12 interceptions and 10 clearances mean the clean sheet.
Crosses and attacking threat: Alavés made 18 crosses to the box, yet the aerial threat was made enough by their defense. On the other hand, they resorted to six crosses only. Instead, they built attacks through intricate passing and movement.
Conclusion: Barcelona’s Momentum Continues
And Barcelona continued staking their claim to top spot in La Liga with the dominant 3-0 victory over Deportivo Alaves. The game without doubt saw, was Robert Lewandowski hat-trick, which explained why he remained one of the most feared strikers in football.
Alavés remind themselves at the match the chasm that existed in quality between them and the league’s top teams. Showing sparks of resilience, too, they were still left helpless against Barcelona’s technical superiority and tactical formation.
Barcelona now holds high hopes for other matches ahead with this thumping victory under their belts, while Alavés needs to find form quickly not to sink any deeper down.
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