La Liga | 33rd Matchday | Lewandowski’s Hat-Trick: Barcelona Overturns Valencia (4-2)
Robert Lewandowski pulled FC Barcelona out of a tough spot against Valencia on Monday night in La Liga. After Fermin Lopez opened the scoring, the Catalan team was pulled back and then surpassed. With the opposing goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili sent off, the Polish striker scored three times (49th, 82nd, 90th+3). A convincing victory (4-2) that puts the Blaugrana back in second place, while Valencia remains 8th.
FC Barcelona eventually asserted their dominance. This Monday night, the Blaugrana overturned Valencia (4-2) in the closing match of the 33rd round of La Liga. At the Estadio Olimpico Lluis Companys, Robert Lewandowski scored a hat-trick (49th, 82nd, 90th+3) after Fermin Lopez opened the scoring (22nd).
On the opposing side, Ruben Baraja’s men managed to take the lead thanks to Hugo Duro (27th) and a penalty converted by Pepelu (38th). Barcelona reclaimed the second place and closed the gap to eleven points behind the leader, Real Madrid. Valencia, on the other hand, remains eighth.
With 80% possession, 27 shots to five, including thirteen on target against three… And yet, FC Barcelona, also with a numerical advantage since the end of the first half, had to wait until the 82nd minute to take the lead in this match on the scoreboard. Following yet another corner (Barça had fifteen corners compared to one for Valencia), Jaume Domenech initially cleared a header from Ronald Araujo, but Robert Lewandowski managed to score on his own, into the empty net (82nd, 3-2).
In the final minutes, the Polish striker didn’t allow Ferran Torres to take a very good free-kick from 20 meters. He took charge and once again beat the opposing goalkeeper with a magnificent strike with his right foot (90th+3, 4-2), completing his work started early in the second half.
At the restart, Barcelona was trailing, but the former Bayern Munich player quickly equalized with a header from a corner (49th, 2-2). Robert Lewandowski became the first Barcelona forward since Samuel Eto’o against Mallorca in September 2005 to score two headed goals in a La Liga match.
The score could have been even more lopsided if Domenech hadn’t intervened against Raphinha (45th+7), Lewandowski (54th, 75th), Jules Koundé (62nd), Araujo (73rd, 86th), or Joao Felix (78th). Jaume Domenech had a lot of work, but only in 45 minutes of play.
The Spanish goalkeeper was forced to come on just before halftime, following the straight red card received by Giorgi Mamardashvili (45th+4), guilty of handling the ball outside his penalty area.
Before having to leave his teammates with ten men, the Georgian goalkeeper had been beaten once, by a beautiful header from Fermin Lopez, who scored the opening goal (22nd, 1-0) and scored in consecutive La Liga matches for the first time. He then intervened against Joao Cancelo (44th) before being saved by his post from a shot by Araujo (45th+1).
Most notably, Mamardashvili had the opportunity to witness, as a spectator, the huge blunder by his Barcelona counterpart. Marc-André ter Stegen, who had previously made a save against Hugo Duro (14th), then attempted an improbable move against the same opponent, with a delicate chip outside his penalty area. Duro didn’t fall for it and managed to block him before going on to equalize into the empty net (27th, 1-1).
