Barca barca: Lamine Yamal hat-trick moves Barcelona four points clear
barca moved four points clear at the top of La Liga after Lamine Yamal scored the first hat-trick of his career as Barcelona beat Villarreal 4-1. The result left Barcelona on 64 points while second-placed Real Madrid were on 60 before they host Getafe on Monday.
Barca at Camp Nou
The match was staged at Camp Nou on Saturday, February 28 at 4: 15pm (15: 15 GMT). Barcelona welcomed high-flying Villarreal looking to tighten their grip on pole position; a win would provisionally take Barcelona four points ahead of Real Madrid, who were due to host Getafe on Monday night. Before the game Barcelona had endured a mini-wobble earlier this month after being thrashed 4-0 by Atletico Madrid in the first-leg of their Copa del Rey semifinal and then losing 2-1 to Girona, briefly allowing Real Madrid to occupy top spot. Barca had bounced back with a 3-0 win over Levante last weekend while Real slipped to a surprise defeat at Osasuna.
Lamine Yamal's first hat-trick
Lamine Yamal put the hosts ahead in the 28th minute after Fermin Lopez robbed Pape Gueye and slipped a pass down the right for the 18-year-old to finish low inside the left post. He doubled the lead nine minutes later with a dazzling solo run, controlling a long ball on the right wing before cutting inside past Sergi Cardona and Alberto Moleiro to curl an unstoppable shot into the top corner. Gueye pulled one back from close range in the 49th minute, but Villarreal missed chances to equalise and Yamal completed his hat-trick in the 69th minute with another counterattack. Robert Lewandowski came off the bench to add a fourth in added time, tapping in from Jules Koundé’s low cross from the right.
Standings and scoring details
Barcelona moved to 64 points. Real Madrid remained on 60 points before they hosted Getafe on Monday, and Villarreal stayed third on 51. Barca still led La Liga for goals scored this season with 67, with 10 different players having scored two or more; nobody had more than Ferran Torres on 12. Torres had just three goals in his last 15 appearances across all competitions, and Robert Lewandowski had five goals in his last 18 games.
Striker form: Lewandowski and Torres
There were expressed concerns about the form of Robert Lewandowski, 37, and Ferran Torres, 25. Lewandowski was described as having declined rapidly this season and enduring some fitness issues, while Torres was noted to be on course for a personal record for goals but with most of those coming in a purple patch towards the end of last year. Lewandowski told Polish magazine Pilka Nozna this week: "With so many matches rotation at striker is natural, and I think Ferran and I can benefit from the current situation. " He added: "When you play 90 minutes every three days, your whole life is about recovery, now the balance is a little better. I’m tired but I’m not worn out. " Barcelona coach Hansi Flick had not used England international Marcus Rashford much in that position, the Manchester United loanee preferring to operate from the left.
Der Klassiker: Kane and Kimmich
In the Bundesliga, England captain Harry Kane scored twice as Bayern Munich opened an 11-point lead with a 3-2 win at Borussia Dortmund in Der Klassiker on Saturday. Joshua Kimmich scored the winner with a left-foot volley in the 87th minute, four minutes after Daniel Svensson had equalised for Dortmund with a brilliant volley inside the left post. Nico Schlotterbeck had put Dortmund 1-0 up at the break. Serge Gnabry set up Kane’s response and Kane’s second came from the penalty spot after a foul by Schlotterbeck on Josip Stanisic, taking his league tally to 30 goals this season. Kane had scored two goals or more for the fourth successive game and was described as threatening Robert Lewandowski’s season record of 41.
Bundesliga and relegation battles
Werder Bremen ended a 13-game run without a win by beating relegation rivals Heidenheim 2-0 in a bottom-of-the-table scrap. Bremen missed a host of chances before Jovan Milosevic scored from Romano Schmid’s cross in the 57th minute, and an own goal from Hennes Behrens in stoppage time confirmed Bremen’s first win after three defeats under their new coach Daniel Thioune. The win lifted Bremen above Wolfsburg into the relegation playoff place. Wolfsburg, who had not won in their past six games, were due to visit Stuttgart on Sunday.
Heidenheim remained bottom, nine points from a safe position, after St Pauli held on for a 1-0 win at high-flying Hoffenheim. Mathias Pereira Lage scored for St Pauli before the break, lifting the Hamburg-based club out of the relegation zone after their third win from four games. Kevin Diks scored a stoppage-time penalty for Borussia Mönchengladbach to beat Union Berlin 1-0 and end Gladbach’s seven-game winless run. Jarell Quansah scored late for Bayer Leverkusen to salvage a 1-1 draw with Mainz, cancelling out Sheraldo Becker’s second-half volley. The draw was a blow to Leverkusen’s hopes of reaching fourth; Leverkusen remained sixth, and both Stuttgart and Leipzig could pull further away. Leipzig were due to visit Hamburg on Sunday.
All of these results shaped a busy weekend of European football, with Barca’s move to the top of La Liga and Bayern’s dominant win in the Bundesliga among the standout outcomes.
Closing paragraph: Lamine Yamal’s hat-trick and Robert Lewandowski’s late contribution sealed Barcelona’s 4-1 win over Villarreal, moving Barcelona to 64 points and four clear of Real Madrid, while elsewhere Harry Kane’s double and Joshua Kimmich’s late volley earned Bayern a 3-2 victory at Borussia Dortmund.
