Barcelona win over Alaves to preserve title hopes

BARCELONA: Robert Lewandowski’s second-half strike helped Barcelona beat Alaves 1-0 on Sunday to cut the gap on La Liga leaders Real Madrid down to four points.

The Catalans, third, capitalised with a narrow victory after the champions slipped up across town at Espanyol on Saturday. Barcelona trail second place Atletico by three points before the Rojiblancos face Real Madrid in a tasty derby clash next weekend, which could allow Hansi Flick’s side to make up more ground.

Lewandowski netted from a Lamine Yamal cross to settle a hard-fought match in which Alaves largely frustrated the hosts. “Before the game we knew we had to win,” Lewandowski told Movistar. “For us it’s a moment in which we have less points than Atletico and Real Madrid, (but) first it’s important that we win and later we can think about their points.

“We have to play well, win and then we can look at the league table and see how many points we have exactly.” Flick’s team struggled to get going in the early afternoon sunlight at the Olympic stadium.

The Catalans created barely anything of note in the first half as Alaves resisted stubbornly. One mazy Lamine Yamal dribble got home fans excited but there was little else to raise the pulse.

Gavi and Tomas Conechny were both taken off after an ugly collision of heads. Lewandowski scuffed a shot narrowly wide and a low Pedri effort was comfortably fielded by Alaves goalkeeper Jesus Owono.

Flick brought on Frenkie de Jong and Eric Garcia at half-time to try and speed up Barcelona’s game in possession and the team looked sharper as a result. Lewandowski sent a glancing header agonisingly wide of the far post soon before he broke the deadlock.

The veteran Polish forward produced a poacher’s finish from close range after Yamal sent a cross-shot spinning towards him at the back post after 61 minutes. It was Lewandowski’s 18th goal of the league campaign, stretching his lead on Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe as the division’s top scorer to three.

“A game like today is very important,” said Lewandowski. “We can’t always win with four, five or six goals, sometimes teams like this come along who defend deep and well, but we have a chance if we play with patience, and in the end we scored one more goal than them so we’re very happy.”

Barca substitute Ferran Torres’s curling effort was pushed away by Owono at full stretch as the Catalans tried to make the game safe. Flick’s team could not produce a second but Alaves, who barely threatened Wojciech Szczesny’s goal throughout, were not able to mount a comeback.