Barcelona came into Tuesday’s game against Brest with some fresh wounds from the weekend, having thrown away a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 with Celta Vigo in La Liga. Now up against the Champions League’s surprise package they needed to get back to winning ways, and they did, securing a 3-0 victory over their French visitors.
Barca turned in a controlled, professional performance, dominating possession while allowing Robert Lewandowski to bring up his Champions League century, while also seeing the best of what summer signing Dani Olmo has to offer.
It was Lewandowski who opened the scoring for Barcelona, finishing from the penalty spot after being fouled by Marco Bizot in the area. Barca dominated territory throughout the half, but Bizot stood up well to their chances, making one particularly good save from a Fermin Lopez header before the interval.
After the restart, Olmo had an effort cleared off the line, and Bizot continued to impress in goal. In the end, it took some magic from Olmo to finally find a way through and add Barca’s second, as he dribbled around his marker after a fine cut-back from Gerard Martin and finished calmly. To finish as he did, in one fluid movement, was exceptional from the former RB Leipzig man.
Barca should have had a third with six minutes to go, as a loose ball out from defence found Pablo Torre on the edge of Brest’s box, but his resulting shot was wild and did not trouble the goalkeeper. Instead, it was Lewandowski who added the finishing touch with a fine strike into the bottom corner in injury-time.
GOAL rates Barcelona’s players from Estadi Olímpic Lluis Companys…