Barcelona will reach the Christmas break with a streak of four unbeaten matches in the league and a third victory in that span thanks to the 3-0 victory over Real Valladolid in the Jose Zorrilla Stadium. Barça came out with a new formation and struggled at times, but looked good for most of the game and won all three points comfortably on the road.
FIRST HALF
Barça made a bad start to the game, with players apparently confused by the new formation and trying to find the best positions to attack, while Valladolid gave the ball to Barça and tried to create danger against them. However, the home team was unable to threaten at all, and their defense began to slowly break down as Lionel Messi began to grow in the game.
The way Barça played was nothing special, but they managed to create good chances and score twice in the first half: first it was Clément Lenglet who found himself alone in the area to head a brilliant cross from Messi, then Martin Braithwaite showed his forward instinct inside the area and got on the score sheet after a great pass from Messi and a shot from Sergiño Dest.
Jordi Masip made a couple of excellent saves to prevent Messi from joining the scoring match in the first half, and at halftime Barça were playing solid football and winning easily.
SECOND HALF
Valladolid came out strong in the second half, pressed higher and attacked more and forced Marc-André ter Stegen to make some quality saves, but Barça closed the game at 20 minutes with a beautiful goal: Frenkie De Jong found space in the middle and passed it to Pedri, who passed Messi with a glorious heel pass and the captain finished off a large triangle with a powerful shot.
With three goals ahead and the Christmas break just 30 minutes away, Barça stopped and Ronald Koeman decided to rest some players and not take great risks while the team was exhausted.
The final whistle came to end a good night for Barça, who did not set the world on fire, but played a solid game on the road, something rare for this team. And just a quick note on Pedri: that good boy, all of you.
Valladolid: Masip; Hervías, Fernández, Sánchez (Guardiola 79 ‘), Martínez; Jota (Orellana 57 ‘), Míchel (Table 57’), Alcaraz, Plano (Pérez 57 ‘); Weissman, Maranhão (Villa 46 ‘)
Goals: None
Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Mingueza, Araujo (Umtiti 70 ‘), Lenglet; Dest, Pjanic, De Jong (Busquets 70 ‘), Alba (Firpo 70’); Messi, Pedri (Coutinho 81 ‘); Braithwaite
Goals: Lenglet (21 ‘), Braithwaite (35’), Messi (65 ‘)
