FC Barcelona have celebrated their 126th birthday by going temporarily top of the league after what was far from a routine victory against Alavés this Saturday.

The Basques took a shock lead after mere seconds of play, but the home side quickly responded through the boot of Lamine Yamal and then Dani Olmo finished off the job with two fine goals, the latter in the dying minutes of a game in which the visitors proved very hard to break down and had chances of their own to get a lot more out of the match than they ultimately did.

So Barça will spend the night with a two-point lead on Real Madrid, but the all-whites play on Sunday at Montilivi, home of Girona.

the game as it happened

Early setback

A happy ending, but what a disastrous start.. Less than a minute into the game, Alavés won a corner. Marc Bernal failed to clear and instead sent the ball right into the danger area, the move ending with Pablo Ibañez celebrating the first ever visiting goal in the new-look Spotify Camp Nou.

Barça didn’t take long to respond. Alejandro Balde, as impressive as he has been in recent games, built the move that ended with a pass across the area, touched on by Raphinha, to find Lamine Yamal ready to slam in the equaliser, his fifth league goal of the campaign.

Raphinha assists the turnaround

Back in the starting line-up for the first time since his injury, Raphinha also provided the assist for goal number two, laying things up perfectly for Dani Olmo to rifle home. Barça took the lead mere seconds after they could have gone behind for a second time had it not been for a simply sublime save from Joan García at point-blank range against Jonny Otto.

It could have been three when Lamine hit the post from a fabulous position just before half-time, but Alavés also had strong chances in a lively first-half. Barça ahead at the break, but it was a far from comfortable lead against a very stubborn opponent.

Pedri is back

Naturally there was a rousing ovation for the return of the much-missed Pedri from injury. The Canary Islander was on for the last thirty minutes but Barça still had yet to put this game to bed

Most of the second half was more about Alavés stopping Barça from doing anything rather than producing much danger of their own. When Barça did find a way through there were chances for Robert Lewandowski, whose header was brilliantly kept out by Antonio Sivera, and also for Lamine Yamal and Dani Olmo to double their personal accounts, but going in to the final minutes there was still only one goal in it.

Olmo breaks the tension

As is so often the case in such scenarios, Alavés opted to use up every last drop they had left in the tank in a late charge. We were in for some tense final minutes...

A providential block from Joan García denied what looked a sure equaliser for Jon Guridi, and although the flag was up for offside, a VAR review may well have decided otherwise. That was the biggest of many moments when several hearts in Spotify Camp Nou missed a beat but Barça not only held on but clinched victory once and or all in the third minute of injury time.

Lamine provided the assist, Dani Olmo slotted home and that was three very hard earned points secured. Phew!

Nest up it’s a big one. Atlético Madrid are the visitors to the stadium on Tuesday at 9pm CET in a game brought forward due the two teams’ involvement in the Spanish Super Cup. See you there!

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