Barcelona was held to a 1-1 draw at home by lowly Alaves in the debut of caretaker coach Sergi Barjuan, while Real Madrid and Sevilla both won on Saturday to leave the Catalan club even further behind in the Spanish league.
Vinicius Junior took over the scoring duties from Karim Benzema by netting twice in Madrid’s 2-1 win at 10-man Elche. Madrid, Sevilla and Real Sociedad are at the top of the standings. Sociedad can reclaim the outright lead on Sunday at home against regional rival Athletic Bilbao.Barjuan, a former Barcelona player who until Thursday was its reserve team coach, did not waver from the lineup and 4-3-3 formation used by Ronald Koeman, who was fired this week after one too many defeats.
The one bright spot for Barcelona was the play of teenage midfielders Gavi Paez and Nico Gonzalez, who provided the only sparks in attack besides Depay. Barjuan also gave a debut to 19-year-old Abde Ezzalzouli in the final minutes. Barcelona was already without Pedri Gonzalez, Frenkie de Jong, Ansu Fati, Ousmane Dembele, Ronald Araujo and Sergi Roberto due to injury.
Mariano Diaz played his first minutes of the season in Benzema’s place. The rarely used striker showed his reflexes were still sharp when he used his heel to knock a pass from Casemiro into the path of Vinicius for him to fire under Kiko Casilla in the 22nd.
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