Ruthless Rob rockets Barça to the top

Robert Lewandowski netted his 80th career matchwinner in German or Spanish top-flight action, with his first-half goal proving decisive as Barcelona made it 10 straight league victories over Mallorca to go temporarily top of La Liga.

Mallorca began with intent, but Barcelona’s exquisite passing game proved as difficult as expected for the hosts to handle. It was that which undid Javier Aguirre’s men on 20 minutes, as Ansu Fati – having seen all four of his prior La Liga goal contributions this term arrive on the road – turned a luckless Pablo Maffeo making his 100th La Liga appearance. The teenager fed elder statesman Robert Lewandowski, who nonchalantly wrong-footed Martin Valjent and fired into Predrag Rajković’s far corner to open the scoring in a second straight match.

With Barcelona last losing an away league game a year ago to the month, it seemed only a true miracle could save Mallorca, and the visitors controlled proceedings all the way up to HT, ending up ahead at the interval in a tenth successive La Liga clash with Mallorca. But bookings prevailed over chances, with three Barça men seeing yellow in the space of five minutes, with Mallorca’s Jaume Costa also finding himself in the book for a robust challenge.

The second half’s early exchanges somewhat mirrored those of the first, with Mallorca starting assertively but unable to hit the target, as Vedat Muriqi sent a header flashing wide before Antonio Sánchez hit a weak shot from 18 yards, which Marc-André ter Stegen saved comfortably. Barcelona remained composed after weathering this mini ‘storm’, and reached the hour mark accounting for nearly three-quarters of the possession.

Barcelona’s game plan continued to starve the hosts of clear openings as the minutes ticked by, and Mallorca had no answer, proving unable to score in an eighth successive home league match. In turn, they also failed to prevent a 14th successive loss for manager Aguirre against Barcelona, who themselves will relish their overnight placing at the top of the pile.

Match Highlights Mallorca vs Barcelona