Ousmane Dembele’s last-gasp finish hands Barcelona a crucial win.
Barcelona have set up the title race after edging out Real Valladolid 1-0 at home, with Ousmane Dembele scoring a late winner.
It wasn’t plain sailing for the Catalans as they were lacklustre for the larger parts of the game, especially in the first half.
Valladolid had multiple opportunities to punish Barca on the break but they failed to do so.
However, a switch to a 4-3-3 formation from Ronald Koeman in the second half got the Catalans going and they had their first clear-cut chance of the game. Dembele had his shot saved by Jordi Masip and Antoine Griezmann couldn’t follow up on the rebound.
With the game approaching the final minutes, Dembele blasted a shot into the nets which Masip couldn’t do much about it. The Frenchman’s strike put Valladolid to the sword and allowed Barca to continue their impressive league run.
The win has now allowed the Catalans to move ahead of Real Madrid in the second place and they are trailing the table-toppers Atletico Madrid by only one point.
Dembele’s resurgence continues
It wasn’t quite the night for the Blaugrana, let alone Dembele. Yet, the 23-year-old looked more dangerous in the second half and came up with the winning goal whilst stars like Antoine Griezmann and Lionel Messi failed to step up. In addition, his pace and dribbling prowess induced a red card for Oscar Plano as Valladolid were forced to play with ten men for the final ten minutes.
The Frenchman has now racked up five league goals this season with three of them coming in the last five games.
Next up is El Clasico against arch-rivals Real Madrid and Barca’s confidence must be sky high after tonight’s win.
