Lamine Yamal Sends Barca 4 Points Clear Of…

(Photo by Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images)

FC Barcelona restored their four-point lead at the top of LALIGA with a 1-0 victory over Athletic Bilbao on Saturday evening.

LaLiga

Result: Athletic Bilbao 0-1 FC Barcelona

Date: 07 March 2026

Venue: San Mames

The league leaders welcomed back Joao Cancelo, Marc Casado, Gerard Martin and Marcus Rashford, with Fermin Lopez and Raphinha dropping to the bench.

Cancelo very nearly gifted the host the lead in the opening minute when he scooped a cross to the area onto the top of the woodwork and away for a corner-kick.

Former Barcelona manager Ernest Valverde’s hand was forced with ten minutes gone, where Robert Navarro came on for the injured Unai Gomez.

The reigning champions got in control after a nervous start and enjoyed a bulk of the possession though were unable to get in-behind the defence and orchestrate chances.

Bilbao continued on the front-foot and found the back of the net when Inaki Williams cut-inside to the edge of the box to beat goalkeeper Joan Garcia, but his strike was ruled out for offside.

Hansi Flick’s men showed more intent a minute into the second half as Rashford came short to the area to produce a curling shot, but Unai Simon proved equal to the task. At the othe end, Garcia made himself big after the opening ten minutes of the resumption when he stretchered across to palm a first-time shot from Oihan Sancet.

Barcelona continued to stay compact and took the lead midway through the second half after Lamine Yamal collected a forward pass from Pedri and curled in off the far post.

The confidence and gallant display started to drop after conceding with the Blaugrana on the hunt for more goals towards full-time.

Navarro did come close for Valverde’s boys when he volleyed a high cross to the back-post wide and across the face of goal in the final minutes of regulation time.

However, Barcelona were able to run down the closing seconds to the end and grabbed the win to restore their four-point lead at the top of the table.

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