At Athletic Bilbao, Lamine Yamal gives Barcelona a valiant 1-0 victory.
At Athletic Bilbao, Lamine Yamal gives Barcelona a valiant 1-0 victory.
At the top of the La Liga standings, Yamal's goal keeps the champions four points ahead of Real Madrid.
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| Lamine Yamal of Barcelona scored the first goal for his team. |
When Barcelona's teenage player broke the deadlock with a stunning strike to secure a 1-0 victory at Athletic Bilbao, Lamine Yamal once again demonstrated his capacity to determine a game.
At its San Mames Stadium, Athletic attacked in waves during Saturday's wide-open contest before Yamal gave the La Liga leaders the upper hand.
Pedri Gonzalez's pass gave the 18-year-old Spain striker some space to work on the right side of the field, where he opened a shooting angle with a single touch before curling a left-footed strike off the upper edge of the far post.
The goal in the 68th minute, his 19th goal in all competitions this season, kept Hansi Flick's team four points ahead of Real Madrid in second place and on track to win the domestic championship.
Yamal netted his first hat-trick in a 4-1 La Liga victory over Villarreal last weekend.
Four days after Barcelona's Copa del Rey semifinal loss to Atletico Madrid, Saturday's valiant away victory at the Basque club took place.
Before Barcelona travels to Newcastle on Tuesday to begin their Champions League round-of-16 match, Flick rested a few of his regular starters. Up until the last thirty minutes, Pedri, Raphinha, and Fermin Lopez were benched. They were replaced by Marcus Rashford, Marc Bernal, and Marc Casada.
Jules Kounde and Alejandro Balde, two injured full-backs, were replaced by Eric Garcia and Joao Cancelo.
Athletic had more opportunities, but they were consistently thwarted by goalkeeper Joan Garcia, who made a number of excellent stops to keep the visitors level and highlight his increasing significance this season.
Midway through the second half, Flick inserted Raphinha, Pedri, and Robert Lewandowski; the breakthrough occurred in the 68th minute.
Pedri released Yamal inside the box as he ran from the right channel, and the 18-year-old silenced the home fans with a left-footed shot into the top corner.
Athletic is in ninth place with 35 points, while Barcelona leads the standings with 67 points.
