Leganés vs Barcelona, La Liga: Final Score 0-1, Barça escape with narrow win on the road

Barcelona have extended their lead at the top of the La Liga table to seven points for at least the next 24 hours thanks to a hard-fought 1-0 win away to Leganés at the Butarque Municipal Stadium on Saturday night in Madrid. The Catalans played one of their worst games in a while and had quite a few scares against the hosts, and needed an own goal from Jorge Sáenz to escape a hostile environment with all three points and remain in control of the title race.

FIRST HALF

The opening 45 minutes were a tough watch for Barça fans who saw perhaps the worst half from their team in a long time: the Blaugrana had very little imagination and struggled to attack against Leganés’ well-organized 4-5-1 formation and low block, and relied too much on Lamine Yamal to try and create anything in the final third.

There were some rare moments of danger that ended with aimless shots and a whole lot of bad passes that ended promising attacks, and Pedri was as quiet as we’ve ever seen him this season. Leganés barely had to work, and knew when to use tactical fouls to slow down the Catalans’ momentum in the few moments in which they did look dangerous.

Leganés also looked good on the counter, with striker Dani Raba moving all over the final third and causing huge trouble for both Barça center-backs with his size and pace, and he was responsible for the two biggest chances of the half that ended with a Wojciech Szczesny save and a powerful shot by Raba that went just wide of the post.

The hosts ended the half as the better team and took advantage of more bad passes from Barça in midfield to create danger going forward, and to make matters worse Barça lost Alejandro Balde to injury and the left-back had to be replaced by Gerard Martín shortly before the break.

The halftime whistle came to end a very poor first half from the Blaugrana, who needed to improve in every phase of the game to find the winning goals and secure the victory in the second half against a confident and dangerous Leganés side.

SECOND HALF

Hansi Flick made his second substitution of the game at halftime, sending on Frenkie de Jong for Ronald Araujo and putting Eric García at center-back to improve the buildup play and add another creative force in midfield.

The Catalans were also more aggressive without the ball and pressed with more hunger, and those changes immediately paid off: Gerard Martín won the ball back in midfield, Raphinha sent a low cross into the box looking for Robert Lewandowski, and Leganés center-back Jorge Sáenz deflected the ball into his own net to give Barça the lead just three minutes into the period.

The early goal energized Barça who looked much better compared to the first half, moving the ball with more purpose and finding spaces more easily as Leganés started to show cracks defensively. Fermín López could have scored an incredible solo goal but somehow missed the target completely from short range, and Barça started to look like themselves again as we reached the hour mark.

Leganés went forward to try and take a breather and had some desperate penalty shouts on plays that were not even close to spot kicks, but they at least managed to slow down the pace of Barça’s play for a few minutes and brought the crowd back into the game.

Flick made two more changes to add fresher legs to try and seal the win as Ferran Torres and Gavi replaced Lewandowski and Fermín, but Barça found themselves on the back foot again as Leganés continued to increase the pressure and almost scored the equalizer when a Raba header was disallowed for offside.

The home team sensed that they had a real chance to steal at least a point, and coach Borja Jiménez made two very attacking substitutions including a cameo for former Barça striker Munir El-Haddadi. The change almost worked immediately as Munir had a potential assist with his first touch but the other substitute, striker Diego García, somehow dragged his shot wide in what was easily the best chance of the night for Leganés.

The game was wide open as we reached the final 15 minutes, and Barça struggled to keep hold of the ball and wasted good counter-attacking chances to double their lead. Flick made his final change of the night with Pau Cubarsí replacing Eric to add a little more height and speed at the back, looking to solidify his defense and keep a clean sheet.

Even though the end wasn’t pretty, the visitors got the job done and managed to protect their narrow lead thanks in large part to a truly spectacular play in added time by Iñigo Martínez, who made an absolutely incredible tackle to take the ball away from Munir who was through on goal and ready to equalize.

The full-time whistle came shortly after to give Barça all three points in an ugly game that wasn’t well officiated and featured very little quality football, but the victory was the only thing that mattered after the dropped points against Betis last week and how tight the title race still is.

If Barça do go on to win the league, they can look back on this one as a big reason why. And holy cow, Iñigo Martínez. Just wow.

Leganés: Dmitrovic; Rosier, Sáenz, González, Hernández; Altimira (García 75’), Rodríguez (Neyou 67’), Tapia, Cissé (Munir 75’), Diomande (Cruz 59’); Raba

Goals: None

Barcelona: Szczesny; Kounde, Araujo (De Jong 46’), Iñigo, Balde (Martín 41’); Fermín (Gavi 67’), Eric (Cubarsí 80’), Pedri; Yamal, Lewandowski (Ferran 67’), Raphinha

Goals: Sáenz (OG 49’)

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