LALIGA leaders FC Barcelona got back to winning ways in fine style after thrashing Mallorca 5-1 on Tuesday night.
LALIGA
Result: Mallorca 1-5 Barcelona
Date: 03 December 2024
Venue: Estadi Mallorca Son Moix
Lamine Yamal, Dani Olmo and Marc Casado were restored to the Blaugrana line-up after the weekend's loss to Las Palmas, while top scorer Robert Lewandowski was surprisingly named on the bench.
The visitors got the opening goal after 11 minutes when Ferran Torres pounced on a mix-up in the Mallorca box and calmly slotted home his second league goal of the season.
Hansi Flick's charges continued to push for more goals and went close in the midway period as Torres was denied a second after his volley from ten yards out was kept out by Mallorca goalkeeper Leo Roman.
The visitors were made to rue that miss as Mallorca restored parity two minutes before the halftime break when Pablo Maffeo broke the offside to race clear and unselfishly teed up Vedat Muriqi to slot into an empty net.
The home side's joy did not last too long as after Yamal won a penalty seven minutes into the second half, which allowed Raphinha to step up and convert the spot-kick and take his tally to 10 league goals.
The Brazilians was not done there as he bagged his second and Barcelona's third in the 74th minute after getting on the end of Yamal's wonderful cross to poke the ball beyond Roman in the six yard box.
Barcelona rounded off the scoring four minutes later when Pau Victor's was deflected into the path of Frenkie de Jong, who needed no second invitation to rifle the ball into the back of the net for his first goal of the season.
The fifth goal arrived in the final seven minutes as De Jong turned provider this time by picking up a loose ball and picking out Victor, who sent a first-time strike past Roman to seal an emphatic win.
