Barcelona took charge of the LaLiga title race when they beat Cádiz 2-0 at the Camp Nou on Sunday night. After Real Madrid beat Osasuna away on Saturday and closed the gap to five points at the top of the LaLiga table, Xavi’s side quickly regained their eight-point lead with another win at home.
The visitors had the ball in the back of the net in the 20th minute when Roger Marti plowed past Marc-Andre ter Stegen but the goal was disallowed for offside. The hosts hardly created clear openings in the first 40 minutes, as Cádiz did a good job of preventing their hosts from playing their natural game.
Robert Lewandowski had a great chance to open the scoring on 40 minutes with an attractive ball from Ferran Torres down the right flank, but the Polish striker failed to keep his header at the far post.
In the 43rd minute, it was Torres who reinvented a delicious ruse from the edge of the box to set up Lewandowski’s diving header that cleared the ball. However, Sergi Roberto was present to finish off the rebound and give his team the advantage.
Two minutes later, it was 2-0 when Lewandowski scored deep in first-half stoppage time to double Barcelona’s lead. The 34-year-old scored from inside the box with a superb striker to break his mini-scoring drought of 3 matches.
The goal brought a huge sigh of relief to the home fans as Barcelona went into the break with the lead. Lewandowski came close to making it 3-0 ten minutes after the break, but was unable to keep up his looping effort after Gavi’s header.
Cádiz came close to scoring in the dying minutes of the game when Chris Ramos was denied twice by ter Stegen while substitute Anthony Lozano hit the post with a header.
As Barcelona managed to hang on and keep a clean sheet, the Catalans now sit on 59 points from 22 games having won all of their last five league games. Cádiz, meanwhile, is 17th, 2 points from the relegation zone.
Photo credit: Imago/Pressinphoto
