Barcelona pondered and probed for an opening early on in their Sunday night fixture against the newly-promoted Real Valladolid, knowing that a second successive win would help them climb to third in the table. Robert Lewandowski and Ousmane Dembele hit the woodwork as part of the Blaugrana’s early onslaught, but it wasn’t long after that the former gave them the lead.
The Pole struck first in the 24th minute, converting a teasing cross from summer signing Raphinha at the back post. Twenty minutes later, Pedri timed a late run to the edge of the box and side-footed a pass from Dembele into the corner of the net, ensuring Barcelona went into the break with a comfortable lead.
Dembele was involved in his side’s third goal as well, which arrived shortly after the hour mark. The Frenchman’s mazy run attracted defenders, opening up space for Lewandowski to run into. He then found the Polish striker with a perfectly-weighted reverse pass, which the latter cheekily converted for Barcelona’s third goal of the night.
Lewandowski nearly had his first hat-trick in Blaugrana colors, too, but was denied by the crossbar late on. However, Sergi Roberto was on hand to convert the rebound as Barca ran rampant for a second consecutive weekend.
Elsewhere, Vinicius Jr gave Real Madrid a 12th-minute lead, finishing a well-worked move from close range. However, former Real Madrid B star Joselu scored just before the interval, pegging the champions level with a volleyed finish from inside the six-yard box after his initial effort was saved by Thibaut Courtois.
It wasn’t until the 88th minute that Los Blancos found a way past the Espanyol defence. Karim Benzema, denied a goal earlier for offside, converted a cross from Rodrygo at the back post to give his team the lead.
The Frenchman then scored directly from a free-kick in the 10th minute of stoppage time to seal the points after Benjamin Lecomte was shown a red card for bringing down Dani Ceballos outside his box.
