Villarreal 0-1 Barcelona: Neymar earns his first minutes

Posted by: neydmin Posted date: August 31, 2014 In: Neymar news | comment : 1

Full-time: Villarreal 0-1 Barcelona
Goals: Sandro Ramirez (82′)
Match date: August 31, 2014
Stadium: El Madrigal
Competition: La Liga
Barcelona line-up: Bravo, Daniel Alves, Piqué, Mathieu, Jordi Alba, Busquets, Rafinha, Rakitic, Pedro, Munir, Lionel Messi.

Barcelona wrapped up another 3 points in the Spanish League after coming out of the “El Madrigal” with a very complicated 0-1 win. Neymar made his first appearance this season when he came in around the 59th minute of the game, still in time to contribute to the winning goal scored by a 19-year old youngster from “La Masía“, Sandro Ramírez.

If there’s something that really changed from last season in regards to this Barça team, that’s the way the new coach is giving opportunities to the youngsters week in and week out. In La Liga‘s opening fixture, the spotlight turned to Munir, who not only debuted for the first team but also scored his first senior goal for the club. Munir repeated his start this weekend, but this time around, it would be Sandro Ramírez shining and delivering the 3 points to Barcelona.

The 19-year old was sent into the game around the 70th minute, as he replaced Pedro on the pitch in an attempt to allow Barça to keep pushing for the goal. It turned out that Luis Enrique didn’t have to wait much longer to celebrate after having made that call, since the Blaugrana reached the winning goal in 82nd minute, after an attacking play where Lionel Messi basically managed to draw the attention to himself before assisting his teammate for an easy finishing touch. Sandro Ramírez was definitely happy to be in the right place at the right time and secured an important win for Barcelona when it already seemed that Villarreal was going to get away of this game with 1 crucial point.

Barcelona are now leading the Spanish League with 2 wins in 2 games and now they’ll only play again on September 13, in a home fixture against Athletic Bilbao. Neymar will be fully recovered by then, so he’ll most likely get his first start of the season.

Sources: fcbarcelona.com / theguardian.com