FC Barcelona, the Spanish La Liga Santander giant, played Mallorca at the Camp Nou yesterday in their 34th league game of the season, which was a difficult match between the two sides.
The game concluded two goals to one in favor of the hosts, who were able to push above the visitors by securing all three points, putting them in second position behind perennial adversary and newly crowned Champions Real Madrid.Barcelona was extremely fortunate to win the game, despite the Spaniard manager Xavi Hernandez making some costly, tactical, and indecisive blunders in the team, which should be remedied in the remaining games of the season.
Here are four key takeaways from Barcelona's hard-fought triumph, which keeps the Catalan giant alive in the competition.
AnsuFati, the Spaniard prodigy and Barcelona's new number 10 who is expected to take into Lionel Messi's shoes, made his return to the club after a spell of being sidelined due to injury, when he came on for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang with 15 minutes remaining in the game.
This is a positive progression for the Catalan giant, who will be hoping that he will remain longer and stronger this time after displaying some excellent touches throughout the game, which is a good sign.
- Gerard Pique was hurt yet again in the game, forcing him off the pitch in the 28th minutes. Despite the growing list of midfield absentees, which could have given Riqui Puig a chance to thrive with only four midfielders on the field, Xavi Hernandez decided not to make any changes, even when the commentators were clearly saying that the young midfielder needed to be introduced to hold the centre-field.
The frosting on the cake was that Riqui Puig sat on the bench for the entire 90 minutes, despite Gavi, who was preferred ahead of him, being booked in the first minute and unable to perform at his best, and the Spaniard strategist deciding to risk any of them missing their next match.Ferran Torres had a bad game and needed to rest in order to learn more and improve his adaptability for the following campaign.
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