Barcelona Starts Their New Year With A Victory Over Real Mallorca To Edge Closer To Champions League Qualification Spot
Football Club Barcelona managed to edge pass Real Mallorca with a narrow 1-0 win to begin their new year with fresh hopes of qualifying for the Champions League next season.
After suffering from a horrible start to the season, during which the club fell as low as 10th position in the La Liga table, new head coach and former club legend Xavi Hernandez have been slowly progressing with the squad as he has only lost once in the last seven matches in La Liga.
It has not been the Barcelona that we know, as the team needed some heroics from their goalkeeper Marc Andre Ter Stegen in the dying minutes of the match in order to keep a clean sheet and preserve the three points against Mallorca. This is a transitional phase that the club is going through and putting points in the bag is the only thing that matters to them.
Ter Stegen’s importance in the win was highlighted in the 91st minute of the match where he managed to make a one-handed save from Jaume Costa’s close-range shot which also led Barcelona defender Eric Garcia to claim that the team owed 70 percent of the win to Ter Stegen.
After the match ended, Eric Garcia was quoted saying, “He was spectacular and he’s a top goalkeeper,”. “We know he responds in moments like that. “Mallorca were pressing and we knew we had to soak it up and we’ve shown we are able to do that.”
Their latest win over Mallorca moves Barcelona to the fifth spot in the League table where they are now only behind Atletico Madrid trailing by just a point for the fourth and the Champions League spot.
It was a very good and much-needed weekend for Barcelona as we saw two of the top three teams Real Madrid and Real Betis dropping points.
Real Madrid started their year with a shocking defeat at the hands of Getafe, where Enes Unal’s single goal was enough for the home side to win the match.
Despite having the ball for most of the match and leading in possession against Getafe, head coach of Real Madrid Carlo Ancelotti was not impressed with his side’s performance against Getafe.
Ancelotti went on to claim that the team lacked spirit and confidence compared to the way they ended the year and that it looked different this time around. He also said that the team was less focused and less committed.
Although Real Madrid lost their match against Getafe, they are not in a worry as they are having an eight-point lead over second-place Sevilla, who are having two games in hand yet to play and will play their game next on Monday.
I am Darryl Broadhurst and i give investors an insight into the most recent news hitting the “Technology” sector in Wall Street. I have been an independent financial adviser for over 11 years in the city and in recent years turned my experience in finance and passion for journalism into a full time role. I perform analysis of Companies and publicizes valuable information for shareholder community.
