{"id":41609,"date":"2025-09-29T05:09:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T09:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/sin-categoria\/yamal-returns-barca-defeats-real-sociedad-and-leads-la-liga\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T05:09:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T09:09:12","slug":"yamal-returns-barca-defeats-real-sociedad-and-leads-la-liga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/soccer\/yamal-returns-barca-defeats-real-sociedad-and-leads-la-liga\/","title":{"rendered":"Yamal returns: Bar\u00e7a defeats Real Sociedad and leads La Liga"},"content":{"rendered":"Real Sociedad coach Sergio Francisco praised Lamine Yamal, calling him the best player in the world, after the Barcelona forward returned from injury and assisted in the winning goal in Sunday’s match between the two teams.\n\nYamal, 18, missed the last four Bar\u00e7a matches due to a groin problem, but came on from the bench against Real Sociedad and, within a minute, assisted Robert Lewandowski so that the Catalans won 2-1 and went top of LaLiga.\n\n

Lamine’s mere presence on the field is a threat. He’s very difficult to stop, even with fresh players from the bench to defend him.<\/p>Sergio Francisco<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\nThe Real Sociedad coach also added:\n\n

It’s great to see him play. He showed again that he is probably the best in the world. His entry from the bench decided the match.<\/p>Sergio Francisco<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\nReal Sociedad had taken the lead in the first half at the Olympic Stadium thanks to \u00c1lvaro Odriozola, but Jules Kound\u00e9 equalized for Bar\u00e7a just before halftime after a corner by Marcus Rashford.\n\nThe Bar\u00e7a coach, Hansi Flick, brought Yamal on in the 58th minute to the delight of the home fans. In the 59th minute, the teenager beat his defender and crossed for Lewandowski to head in his fourth goal of the season.\n\nYamal thought he had scored his own goal minutes later, but his shot was disallowed for a marginal offside.\n\n

I’m happy to have him back, we all are. He directly showed the outstanding strength he has, to create opportunities, to give the final pass. It’s good to have him back.<\/p>Hansi Flick<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\nYamal’s reappearance came at the end of a week in which he finished second, behind Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9, in the Ballon d’Or and took home the Kopa Trophy, awarded to the best under-21 player in the world, at a gala in Paris.\n\nHe showed the Kopa Trophy on the field before the match, and Flick said that he will now focus on surpassing himself in next year’s Ballon d’Or.\n\n

\"\"
Lamine Yamal celebra despu\u00e9s de asistir en un gol del Barcelona para Robert Lewandowski.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nThe Barca coach added:\n\n

It’s a decision we can’t change, but Lamine has another chance next year. He will try. For every player, it’s something important, to be one of these guys who can win this trophy. And, of course, we have many players in this team who can win this trophy.<\/p>Hansi Flick<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\nThe Bar\u00e7a remains undefeated in seven league games this season, winning six and drawing one, and Sunday’s victory put them ahead of Real Madrid at the top of the table after Los Blancos were defeated by Atletico Madrid on Saturday.\n\n

It’s good to have this. It puts some pressure on the rivals, Real and everyone behind us. Now we have to defend this position.<\/p>Hansi Flick<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\nThe victory on Sunday was also notable for the debut as a starter of Dro Fern\u00e1ndez, a 17-year-old attacking midfielder to whom Flick gave a surprising starting position.\n\n

I am so happy, so happy. It’s incredible. When they told me I was going to be a starter, at first I didn’t believe it, but I managed to calm down. The other players and the coach helped me. They told me to do what I do in training and that gave me some confidence.<\/p>Dro Fern\u00e1ndez<\/cite><\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Real Sociedad coach Sergio Francisco praised Lamine Yamal, calling him the best player in the world, after the Barcelona forward returned from injury and assisted in the winning goal in Sunday’s match between the two teams. Yamal, 18, missed the last four Bar\u00e7a matches due to a groin problem, but came on from the bench […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[156,158,1426,607],"class_list":{"0":"post-41609","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-barcelona","9":"tag-laliga","10":"tag-lamine-yamal","11":"tag-soccer"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}