Barcelona Crush Villarreal 5-1 as Ter Stegen Suffers Injury: Atletico Madrid Held to 1-1 Draw at Rayo
Barcelona easily defeated Villarreal 5-1, with two goals apiece from Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha in a terrific La Liga match on Sunday.
Nevertheless, goalie Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s potentially season-ending knee injury cast a shadow over the victory. Meanwhile, Rayo Vallecano held Atletico Madrid to a 1-1 tie, which kept them in fourth place in the rankings.
La Liga leaders Barcelona easily defeated Villarreal 5-1 on Sunday, with to two goals apiece from Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha. However, they were left worrying about goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s “huge” knee injury. Fourth-place Atletico Madrid was held to a 1-1 tie against Rayo Vallecano, their local rivals, thanks to a goal by Conor Gallagher, the Rojiblancos’ second goal. After falling awkwardly after collecting a cross, Ter Stegen was taken out on a stretcher, marring Barcelona’s sixth league victory in six games. According to early indications, he may miss the remainder of the season.
Barcelona coach Hansi Flick told DAZN, “I think it will be a huge injury, when he laid down on the field… you can see it directly.”
Enthralling duel on Spain’s east coast at Villarreal’s Estadio de la Ceramica saw Lewandowski score Barcelona’s opening two goals and then miss a penalty.
Just before the break, Ayoze Perez got his team back into the match. The hosts, who had never lost before, had two goals disallowed, and Pablo Torre and Raphinha’s goals sealed the win for Barcelona.
Real Madrid, in second position, defeated Espanyol 4-1 on Saturday, allowing the Catalans to reclaim a four-point advantage over the champs.
“It’s very important for us that we played a game away from home, we scored five goals and in the end we have three points,” Lewandowski added.
“In the end it doesn’t matter how, as long as we win that’s perfect.”
Despite Eric Garcia’s early red card in the Champions League midweek loss to Monaco, Flick granted him another start in defensive midfield.
The German coach also started playmaker Torre in place of the injured Dani Olmo, along with Gerard Martin and Sergi Dominguez from the reserve squad. Adolescent sensation Lamine Yamal struck the crossbar in the first minute, and in the twentieth, Torre slipped Lewandowski in, and he finished.
The Polish striker’s bundled effort was well stopped by Villarreal goalkeeper Diego Conde, but after 35 minutes, Lewandowski scored his second. Garcia’s header was expertly saved by Conde, but the former Bayern Munich forward scored the rebound with an incredible close-range strike.
With his sixth La Liga goal of the year, he now leads Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe by two goals in the battle for the Spanish Golden Boot.
With the electrifying Nicolas Pepe setting him up, Perez gave Villarreal a lifeline. Villarreal were always dangerous on the counter.
Before the half, Ter Stegen produced a stunning stop to deny Pepe a one-on-one opportunity. However, the German captain of Barcelona was shortly substituted for Inaki Pena when he suffered a serious fall after catching a corner.
Marcelino Garcia Toral’s team pulled away from Barcelona as Pepe finished beautifully early in the second half, only to have his effort disallowed for a little offside ruling. Yeremy Pino also struck the crossbar with his header.
With Villarreal’s momentum, Torre’s deflected strike from the edge of the box gave Barca an even bigger lead.
After Thierno Barry of Villarreal had a goal disallowed for offside and Eric Bailly had scythed down Yamal, Lewandowski struck the post from the penalty spot.
Any dreams of a homecoming were dashed by Raphinha, who first scored with a deflected shot and then finished with only Conde to beat following a brilliant pass from Yamal.
“(Ter Stegen) is a very special and important person in the dressing room, this victory is 100 percent for him,” Raphinha stated to DAZN.
Thibaut Courtois, the goalkeeper for Real Madrid, sent Ter Stegen a message on the social media site X.
The Belgian goalie wrote, “It hurt me a lot to see you leave the pitch like that.”
“I hope you can recover soon and we see you again in goal.”
Diego Simeone’s undefeated Atletico Madrid was unable to go past Rayo Vallecano in a rivalry match between the two cities.
After thirty-five minutes, Isi Palazon of Rayo scored a goal from close range, but it was first flagged offside.
But early in the second half, after Alexander Sorloth had fed the England international, Gallagher finished cleanly from the edge of the area.
Atletico captain Koke told Movistar, “(At half-time) Simeone told us we all had to run, these days anyone who is not running here cannot play.”
“We had chances to get the winner but it wasn’t to be.”
After defeating Celta Vigo 3-1, Athletic Bilbao moved up to third place, above Atletico.
