Barcelona have returned to winning ways in _La Liga_ and are back on top of the standings with a one-point lead over second-place Real Madrid thanks to a comfortable 3-0 win against bottom of the table Real Oviedo at Camp Nou on a rainy Sunday afternoon. After a boring first half the _Blaugrana_ came to life in the final period and scored some outstanding goals, including a truly special finish by Lamine Yamal, to seal the victory and pick up all three points without any drama against the worst team in the league.
* The opening 40 minutes of the first half featured a whole bunch of nothing: Barça had all of the possession but did nothing meaningful with it, while Oviedo parked the bus and tried to play on the counter but were caught offside time and time again by the _Blaugrana_ defense.
* The action started to heat up towards halftime when Barça had a few half-chances on crosses from the wings, with the best of those resulting in a beautiful volley by Raphinha that was well saved by Escandell. The home team had other moments in which they got into promising attacking positions, but the final pass or cross was always missing and they never really came close to scoring the opener.
* The score was 0-0 at halftime and that honestly felt like a fair reflection on what we saw. Barça weren’t necessarily bad but never got out of first gear, while Oviedo played a competitive half and were more than happy with the result at the break.
* Oviedo were good in the first half thanks to a simple zero-risk, long-ball, counter-attacking strategy. But they decided to play out from the back to begin the second half, and that became their downfall: thanks to a couple of huge mistakes along with two great bits of high pressing by Lamine Yamal and Raphinha, Oviedo essentially gave away two goals and the Catalans found themselves 2-0 up at the half-hour mark thanks to a couple of really good finishes by Dani Olmo and Raphinha.
* But the best finish of the afternoon came with 20 minutes to go as Barça wrapped up the win in style thanks to a beautiful cross by Olmo and a truly special finish by Yamal, who scored an amazing acrobatic volley to triple the lead and bring the entire Camp Nou to its feet to applaud a true Goal of the Season contender.
* Hansi Flick was able to use his substitutions to rest some key players ahead of the Champions League game in midweek, and Barça were able to cruise to the finish to wrap up the three points in comfortable fashion.
* This turned out to be as easy as expected before the match, with Oviedo unable to offer any real resistance despite a solid first half. Barça played well in the second half and took advantage of bad mistakes by the visitors to build their lead and secure a good win at home, and are back on top of the table where they belong. Well done, boys!
See More:
* [Barcelona Match Recaps](/barcelona-match-recaps)
* [Barcelona: La Liga](/barcelona-la-liga)
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