By Samuel A. January 27, 2025
Barcelona reignited their spark to get back to winning ways in La Liga in spectacular fashion with a 7-1 thumping against Valencia at the Monjutic on Sunday night. A free-scoring La Blaugrana, who had been winless in the league since December 3, and had only taken maximum points from one of their previous eight top-flight games, ran riot on the night, racing into a 5-0 lead before half time as they put their visitors to the sword in ruthless fashion.
Barca wasted no time and seized control of the game with just three minutes on the clock courtesy of a Frenkie de Jong strike, before Ferran Torres netted a second on the eighth minute. It was clear by that point that the opponents were in for a tough night, and the feeling was confirmed when Raphinha – who has been a standout for Hansi Flick’s Barca resurgence this season – followed up with a third with less than a quarter of an hour played.
Pau Cubarsi, the young talent who just turned 18 recently, assisted midfielder Fermin Lopez for the hosts’ fourth with a long ball breaking through the Valencia defence with ease.
The visitors were given a glimmer of hope when Wojciech Szczesny was shown a yellow card for what they deemed a sure penalty, but a VAR review decided against awarding a spot kick, and Lopez made it five with his second of the game just before the interval.
Valencia’s Hugo Duro scored a consolation goal early in the second half, but it did little to dampen the blow of such a humiliating scoreline, and the visitors even failed to win the second half when substitute Robert Lewandowski added a sixth with 25 minutes to play, and centre-back Cesar Tarrega scored an own goal late on. Barcelona continue to blow teams away with the intensity and relentlessness of their attack under Flick, and Valencia are just the latest in a long list of victims this season.
