Barcelona secured a commanding 4-1 victory over Girona in the Catalan derby on Sunday, with Robert Lewandowski delivering a clinical second-half brace to propel Hansi Flick’s side three points clear at the top of LaLiga, ahead of Real Madrid.
With this triumph, Barcelona climbed to 66 points after 29 matches, while Lewandowski, at 36, extended his lead in the league’s scoring chart to 25 goals—three ahead of Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappé.
The veteran forward dismissed concerns about his age, stating: “I know a lot of people talk about my age, but I work as hard as I did when I was 21 and I want to play for more seasons. At the moment I’m feeling great physically and if you look at the numbers, they’re the same as they’ve always been.”
Barcelona dominated the early exchanges, with Fermín López and Lewandowski testing Girona goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga.
A contentious moment arose when López was brought down on the edge of the box, leading to a free-kick award.
However, after a VAR review, the decision was reversed, granting Girona a free kick instead—much to the dismay of Barcelona’s players.
Despite sustained pressure, Barça struggled to break through as Gazzaniga made a string of key saves, denying them four times in the first half.
However, just before halftime, the deadlock was broken when Lamine Yamal’s free kick took a deflection off Girona’s Ladislav Krejcí, resulting in an own goal.
Girona responded swiftly after the break, capitalizing on a turnover in midfield. Dutch forward Arnaut Danjuma curled a precise strike past Wojciech Szczesny to level the score.
Undeterred, Barcelona reclaimed the lead just after the hour mark. López nodded a cross into the path of Lewandowski, who executed an acrobatic finish at the far post.
The Polish striker then struck again in the 77th minute, converting a low shot past Gazzaniga following a well-placed pass from Frenkie de Jong.
Ferran Torres added the finishing touch, expertly controlling a pass from the wing before slotting the ball into the bottom corner. Yamal nearly made it five, but his curling effort rattled the crossbar.
Reflecting on the match, Danjuma admitted the challenge posed by Barcelona’s quality: “It’s very clear to see that when they had the ball this afternoon, it wasn’t easy for us. We knew we were up against a great team.” He added, “After I scored, I thought we could take something from the game, we could pressure them a little bit more. But then they got their second, they got their third… and then it became very difficult.”
