Barcelona began their defense of the La Liga title in winning fashion thanks to a 3-0 victory away to Real Mallorca at the Estadi Son Moix in their league opener on Saturday evening. Barça scored twice in a wild and eventful first half in which Mallorca were reduced to nine men, and the Blaugrana cruised in the second half to secure all three points and get off to a solid start in the new season.
FIRST HALF
The opening first half of Barça’s season was as eventful as it gets, with seven minutes of added time needed after all sorts of big moments and controversy.
The start was pretty good for the Catalans, who established their superiority early on and needed just seven minutes to open their account for the campaign, thanks to a beautiful cross by Lamine Yamal that found Raphinha all alone at the far post to head it home for the visitors.
Mallorca responded well to going behind and were aggressive with their pressing and direct on their attacks, and had two big chances in the 10-15 minutes after Barça’s opener, but striker Vedat Muriqi wasted both: the first came after a cross from Johan Mojica in which Muriqi made a poor decision to pass instead of shooting, and the second came when he was found all alone in perfect position inside the box but fired a weak effort straight at Joan Garcia.
Barça needed a second goal to slow down Mallorca’s momentum, and they found it in the strangest of ways: a shot from Yamal was blocked by Mallorca defender Antonio Raillo, who quickly went to the ground grabbing at his head. The referee allowed play to continue instead of stopping for a potential head injury, and Barça took advantage as Ferran Torres fired a beautiful shot into the top corner to double the Blaugrana lead.
Mallorca were angry at the decision and upped their physicality and intensity to try and come back in the game, but that physicality ended up with two red cards in a span of seven minutes for the hosts: Manu Morlanes was the first to see red after he fouled Yamal and was shown a second yellow, and Muriqi hit the showers after a high boot to the face of Joan Garcia that initially resulted in a yellow but was upgraded to a red after a quick VAR review.
Barça all of a sudden found themselves up two goals and with two more players on the pitch, and the Catalans had chances to triple the lead and secure the win before the break, but couldnt finish their opportunities and had to settle for a 2-0 advantage as the halftime whistle came to end a wild opening period.
SECOND HALF
Both coaches went to their benches at the break as Mallorca made a triple change with more defensive-minded players and a switch to a 4-3-1 formation to try and minimize the damage, while Hansi Flick sent on Dani Olmo in place of Fermín López to try and make his side more dangerous and add to the lead in the second half.
The Catalans naturally dominated almost all of the possession and easily found spaces inside a Mallorca defense lacking bodies, and Barça could have easily scored once or twice before the hour mark but were undone by poor decision-making and finishing in and around the box.
Flick made a triple change with about 20 minutes to go, with Marcus Rashford making his official debut in place of Ferran, Jofre Torrents making his first team debut at left-back replacing Alejandro Balde, and Gavi coming on for Pau Cubarsí with Frenkie de Jong moving to center-back.
Barça continued to attack and look for more goals, and Olmo was very unlucky to hit the post while Raphinha fired a shot agonizingly wide as the Blaugrana continued to waste great chances to put the game away. Jules Kounde replaced the Brazilian with 15 minutes to go in Flick’s final change, as the Barça coach looked to secure the victory without any unnecessary late drama.
The Blaugrana cruised in the final minutes and it seemed as though we were set for a 2-0 final score, but Yamal had one more moment of brilliance left in him: Lamine received the ball inside the box, cut inside on his left foot and curled a beauty into the top corner to open his account for the season and score Barça’s third.
The final whistle came to seal a convincing and comfortable victory for the champions, who were the superior team even before Mallorca went down to 9 men and cruised to a solid win to begin the season the right way. Well done, boys!
Mallorca: Román; Morey (Mascarell 46’), Valjent, Raillo, Mojica (Lato 90+1’); Sánchez, Morlanes; Asano (Joseph 46’), Torre (Rodríguez 46’), Darder (Salas 83’); Muriqi
Goals: None
Red Cards: Morlanes (33’), Muriqi (39’)
Barcelona: Garcia; Eric, Araujo, Cubarsí (Gavi 68’), Balde (Jofre 68’); De Jong, Pedri; Yamal, Fermín (Olmo 46’), Raphinha (Kounde 77’); Ferran (Rashford 68’)
Goals: Raphinha (7’), Ferran (23’), Yamal (90+4’)