The Spanish first football team Barcelona regained its winning tone in the UEFA Champions League by inflicting its first defeat on its English guest Aston Villa with a clean three-goal victory on Tuesday, for the fourth round of the unified group competitions.
Barcelona owes its third win in the competition, and the first after its loss to Paris Saint-Germain, winner of the past two seasons "2-4", to a brace by its Brazilian captain Raphinha "53 and 65" and Spanish winger Lamine Yamal "7".
Temporary rise in the standings
Barcelona raised its tally to nine points in second place temporarily, on goal difference over Villa, whose perfect streak in the prestigious continental competition stopped at three consecutive wins.
Barcelona has lost only two matches out of 39 played at home in UEFA competitions against English clubs "24 wins and 13 draws", both against Liverpool, according to "UEFA".
Minute of silence and mourning badge
Players observed a minute of silence before the match began in mourning for the death of Tenerife player, from the Spanish second division, Jesus de Miguel, following his violent collision with the opposing goalkeeper on Monday.
The Champions League anthem was also not played, in mourning for the train accident in Orda that claimed the lives of 69 people, and players from both teams wore black badges.
Individual achievements and clean sheet
Barcelona started the match strongly, opening the scoring after seven minutes following a joint error between Japanese goalkeeper Zion Suzuki and Joao Gomez, which Yamal exploited to open the scoring with a shot from inside the area that he placed to Suzuki's right.
Raphinha shook the net again, scoring his second and third personal goal for Barcelona, after he exploited a precise cross from Portuguese Joao Cancelo from the left side, which he met inside the six-yard box to the net "64", benefiting from his ideal positioning, raising his tally to 19 goals in 13 matches this season.
For the first time, this victory ended Barcelona's streak of 18 matches in the Champions League in which it conceded a goal.
On another note, Dutch midfielder Frenkie de Jong celebrated his 300th appearance for Barcelona against Villa, and De Jong tops the list of Dutch players with the most appearances for Barcelona, ahead by a large margin over Philippe Coutinho, with 292 matches, and Ronald Koeman with [number of matches].
Source: Arriyadiyah newspaper
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