Daily Times

BARCELONA: Pedri and Ferran Torres scored late in the second half to earn Barcelona their first LaLiga win of the season with a 2-0 victory over Cadiz, whose inspired goalkeeper Conan Ledesma had made a string of superb saves on Sunday. Ledesma showed great reflexes to stop two early strikes from 16-year-old forward Lamine Yamal, who was making his first start for Barcelona in place of suspended Raphinha. The teenager became the youngest player to make a LaLiga start in the 21st century, beating the previous record set by Fabrice Olinga in September 2012 with Malaga. Cadiz’s goalkeeper later made an incredible one-handed save from a point-blank strike from Jules Kounde and blocked a Robert Lewandowski header right before the break.

The visitors were dangerous on the counter-attack and wasted two good chances with Roger Marti, but Barca came back on top of the second-half. Barca finally managed to break the deadlock in the 83rd minute, Ilkay Gundogan found Pedri ghosting through off the defensive line with a perfect pass through and the midfielder steered past the onrushing Ledesma with a gentle touch. Substitute Torres took advantage of a counter-attack to secure Barca the points as he raced onto a Robert Lewandowski header and scored with a tidy finish. Barcelona had been held to a goalless draw by Getafe in their opening match of the season last weekend. “It looked like the ball was not going to go in today and it did,” manager Xavi Hernandez told Movistar Plus. “We predicted it was a day to keep a lot of possession and in the second half we were more patient, were better in positional play, took risks and a pass from Gundogan to Pedri gave us what we needed.”