Barcelona 4 – 0 Athletic Bilbao: Barça overwhelm the lions
Dembélé shines as Ernesto Valverde's men have no answer for the French winger
If Barcelona needed anything after the disappointing week with the draw against Inter Milan and the defeat in the Classico, it was a convincing reaction against two teams from the top half of the league. Two teams that are competing for European position.
After comfortably beating Villarreal, Athletic, on the most intense and combative role, was destroyed by Barça led by Ousmane Dembélé. The French winger, with goals and assists, upset the Basque team. He scored the first and assisted the second, third and fourth. Sergi Roberto – who was unfortunately injured at the end- Lewandowski and Ferran Torres, respectively.
4 – With a goal and three assists, Ousmane Dembéle 🇫🇷 has been directly involved in four goals in a single game for Barcelona for the first time in all competitions (165 games). Stellar. pic.twitter.com/aY1qAN7ZJn
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) October 23, 2022
A Barcelona that needed to continue on the recovery line achieved it by far. In the first 20 minutes was most of the demolition, they had destroyed Athletic with intense and precise play and a supersonic right-side links, with an incisive Roberto Sergi and an unstoppable Dembélé. Later, Barcelona managed that advantage, although it sought the use of spaces.
As much as the attacking precision and the lucidity of the right wing, defensive tension was key. Balde, as left back, was chosen by Xavi to place himself on the young Nico Williams, the key player of Athletic. Balde completely annulled him, which gave a lot of relief to Xavi, to the point that Nico decided to change sides and try his luck on the left of his attack.
5 – FC Barcelona have not conceded in their last five LaLiga home games, the best run under Xavi Hernández and best since a run of 12 games in a row between April and December 2011 under Pep Guardiola. Wall. pic.twitter.com/NmjBfYIwiC
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) October 23, 2022
The Barcelona coach again trusted Busquets as a middle center, but it was much the average performance from the experienced player. Frenkie de Jong performed another stellar performance, was a second pivot, next to Busquets, with forward projection. Pedri acted as a ‘false winger’ on the left, that surprised Athletic.
Lewandowski and Dembélé had exchanged roles and the end returned the favor to complete the effects of the Barça cyclone with a pass to the ‘Pichichi’, which made a control oriented with the left foot, He turned around beating De Marcos in the turn and scored with the left, scoring the 12th goal of the league season.
Ferran Torres came from the bench to score a late goal to ensure Barça’ big victory on the expense of the Lions.
