MADRID (AP) — There was no rout this time but Barcelona still prevailed Sunday with Robert Lewandowski scoring a second-half winner as the Catalan club beat Alaves 1-0 to move within four points of rival Real Madrid at the top of the Spanish league.
“It’s not every time that we will be able to score three, four or five goals in a game,” Lewandowski said. “We had to be patient and in the end we did what we had to do, which was to score one more goal than our opponent.”
Madrid lost 1-0 at Espanyol on Saturday after a run of 10 victories in its last 11 matches in all competitions.
Third-placed Barcelona is three points behind second-placed Atletico Madrid, which ended a two-match winless streak in the league with a 2-0 victory against Mallorca on Saturday.
“We knew we had to win this match,” Lewandowski said. “We needed the victory. We had lost too many points in the league already.”
It was an unusually low-scoring game for Barcelona, which had claimed 14 goals in its last three matches — including a 7-1 rout of Valencia in the league.
Lewandowski scored his fourth goal in as many matches across all competitions, and his seventh in the last eight games.
The Poland striker scored from close range after a volley by Lamine Yamal from inside the area deflected off a defender.
Yamal had amazed the crowd only a few minutes into the game, using nifty moves to get past six defenders in a run that ended with Raphinha sending a shot wide of the net.
Alaves, which ended with no attempts on target, stayed inside the relegation zone with the loss. It has won only one of its last 11 matches in all competitions.
Head injuries for Gavi and Conechny
Barcelona midfielder Gavi and Alaves forward Tomás Conechny had to be substituted in the first half after a collision of heads while going for the ball about 10 minutes into the match at Montjuic stadium.
Gavi left the field on his own but Conechny was carried off on a stretcher and taken to a local hospital for further tests.
Alaves said Conechny sustained a head trauma and was expected to spend the night in the hospital.
Valencia rebounds from embarrassing loss
Second-to-last Valencia rebounded from the embarrassing 7-1 loss at Barcelona with a 2-1 home victory over 13th-placed Celta Vigo, which is winless in its last five matches across all competitions. Valencia won two in a row at home in the league for the first time this season. It beat Real Sociedad 1-0 two rounds ago.
Ante Budimir scored a goal in each half as seventh-placed Osasuna defeated 11th-placed Sociedad 2-1 at home. It was the third straight league loss for Sociedad.
Osasuna won for the first time after nine consecutive league matches without a victory, with its last win in the competition coming against last-place Valladolid back in November.
Fourth-placed Athletic Bilbao missed a chance to move even closer to the top three after a 2-2 draw at ninth-placed Real Betis. Athletic twice came from behind to earn the draw in Seville.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Tales Azzoni, The Associated Press
