Valencia-Barcelona, ​​La Liga: 1-2, Robert Lewandowski scored a brace as Barca bounced back to win after a difficult start to the season.

The Hansi Flick era got off to a strong start as Barcelona wrapped up the 2024/25 La Liga season with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Valencia at the Mestalla Stadium on Saturday night. Barça fell behind but leveled immediately towards the end of the first half and took the lead thanks to two goals from Robert Lewandowski and some good team play early in the second half to take the three points.

First half

The first period got off to a slow start, with Barça having more possession and excellent passing through the lines, but unable to break through Valencia’s weak defence. The home side then began to exploit the space behind the Blaugrana’s defense and posed a serious threat on the counter-attack.

Barca’s only good chances came from long range early on, but their strong early play faded as Valencia tricked the visitors and wreaked havoc on the counter-attack. The hosts dominated until the end and took the lead when Diego Lopez crossed from the left and Hugo Duro was left alone in the box to head home easily.

Valencia’s goal came in the 44th minute and at half-time it looked like the hosts might take the lead, but Duro’s extra-time header set off a frenetic five-minute spell with Mark Casado scoring. Lamin Yamal assisted Robert Lewandowski with the last shot of the half before Duro scored his second before Pau Gubarzi cleared the ball off the goal line. The half-time whistle ended a mad dash and things got even more interesting at half-time.

SECOND HALF

Barca got off to a great start in the closing stages when Rafinha was brought down in the penalty area by Christian Mescura and Lewandowski scored a fine penalty to give the visitors the lead just four minutes into the second half.

Valencia reacted strongly in defense, pushed further up and took more risks with the ball. However, he was exposed in defense and Yamal almost scored the second point when he broke through in the one-on-one duel between Fran Torres and Giorgi Mamadashvili, but the Spaniard shot straight at the goalkeeper.

Just after the hour mark, coach Hansi Flick made three changes, including his father’s debut and his return from injury. Pedrey looked fit and ready and showed his usual creative form, playing some excellent key passes that could have turned into great chances had the defenders not made crucial deflections and blocks.

With 20 minutes to go, Flick made another change: Eric Garcia replaced the tired Marc Bernal in central midfield. The centre-back looks good as a pivot in the early stages of his game, putting out fires on the edge of the penalty area and keeping order in the defence.

With 15 minutes to go before half-time, the home team came out of the break even more frantic, pressing harder and looking for a late equaliser, while Barca slowed down and tried to keep the ball for long periods. did

The Blaugrana’s strategy worked, largely thanks to Paredi. Pedri continued to attack and maintained possession by moving around the pitch while Valencia continued to chase the ball to eventually create the ball.

Barça was ready and had almost full control of the ball and the game in the remaining seconds, but Casado and Lewandowski missed a golden chance in the penalty area, which led to a big goal that cost me two chances.

In the end, the missed chances didn’t hurt Barca and the final whistle sounded with all three points after a hard-fought battle at Mestalla. Although there were some difficult moments in the first half, the second half performance was very strong both on the pitch and out of possession, and Barca showed great resilience and composure to easily defend the win until the end. It was a good start for us under coach Hansi Flick and three points less than Valencia isn’t bad at all. Well done, everyone!