Barcelona Femeni returned to winning ways again in the Liga F when they defeated Atletico Madrid 2-0 earlier today. Following their draw against Levante UD, which ended their run of 79 consecutive victories at home, Barca played against struggling Atletico Madrid at the Estadi Johan Cryuff.
The Madrid side displayed compactness and organization in defense and managed to keep Barcelona at bay for the majority of the first half. However, their resistance was broken in the 39th minute when Salma Paralluelo scored the opener for the Blaugrana.
Atletico lost possession of the ball in their half and Barcelona took advantage of the moment with Patri Guijarro sending the ball forward to Esmee Brugts. The Dutch player picked out Salma Paralluelo, who ran in behind the Atleti defense to fore home at the near post.
The half ended 1-0 in favor of the Catalan side, who despite their lead struggled to create any clear goal scoring opportunities until the break that led to Salma Paralluelo’s goal.
The second half happened to be a lot livelier than the first as Barcelona got involved in a lot of goal mouth action in their search for a second goal. Esmee Brugts and Patri Guijarro forced the Atletico goalkeeper to make a few brilliant saves to deny them from scoring.
However, Barcelona doubled their lead in the 76th minute when substitute Vicky Lopez finished from close range. Graham Hansen’s pass into the box fell to Ona Batlle, whose shot was saved by the goalkeeper. The rebound from the goalkeeper’s save however fell to Vicky Lopez in front of goal leaving the 17-year-old to score with an easy tap-in.
Mariona Caldentey had a couple of efforts on goal veer wide off the mark in an attempt to score a third goal for the Blaugrana.
Barcelona Femeni won 2-0, maintaining their spot at the top of the league rankings as the players head home to represent their respective national teams in the upcoming international break.
