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| Dembele celebrate goal vs Valladolid |
FC Barcelona picked up their second consecutive win of the 2018/2019 and it was not a very easy one as the Catalans needed a lone goal by Ousmane Dembele to seal a 1-0 victory over newly-promoted team Valladolid who gave Barca a couple of nightmares on a very bad pitch.
Ernesto Valverde’s men didn’t put up one of their greatest performances but it can be blamed on the quality of the pitch which is one of the worst if not the worst in a top-flight European league division.
Barca were the first to impose their presence in the match with Dembele striking wide minutes after kick off. But the Catalans needed Ter Stegen to make a really great save to keep the tie at 1-0 as he stopped Unal after 7 minutes. Barca were the dominant team in the first half and created a couple of chances but Valladolid goalkeeper Jordi Masip was in good form.
The keeper did well to deny efforts from Luis Suarez and Philippe Coutinho but wouldn’t stop Ousmane Dembele from scoring the opener which would end up being the winning goal on 57 minutes. Luis Suarez made a pass that was looking to cross the line for a goal-kick but Sergi Roberto did well to head the ball back into play and set up Dembele who right-footed a shot past the very good Masip.
Suarez put the ball in the back of the net but it was correctly ruled out for offside thanks to VAR. Malcom replaced Dembele on 83 minutes and almost scored for 2-0 but Masip pulled a great save. Valladolid became much more the better team in the latter stages of the game and thought they had gotten a goal on 93 minutes after Keko headed past Ter Stegen, the player took his shirt off and was having a joyous celebration but then VAR came into place and the goal was annulled. Barca held on and got all three points.
