Raphinha, Yamal fire Barcelona four points clear with 2-0 win at 10-man Villarreal
VILA-REAL, Spain — Barcelona’s wide men did the damage and a late defensive wobble never came, as Raphinha and Lamine Yamal scored in a 2-0 victory over 10-man Villarreal that pushed the Catalans four points clear at the top of La Liga.
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The Brazil international won and converted a penalty inside the opening quarter-hour on Sunday, and Villarreal’s Renato Veiga was dismissed before halftime for a reckless lunge on Yamal. The 18-year-old winger settled it midway through the second half, rifling home after Frenkie de Jong kept a broken play alive in the box.
The result, Barcelona’s eighth straight league win, restores their cushion over Real Madrid and caps a demanding December on a high. Villarreal, who slipped behind Atletico Madrid earlier in the day, sit fourth.
Raphinha offered a rapid response to a week of debate after Hansi Flick publicly defended the winger’s omission from FIFA’s “The Best” team of the year. His performance matched his manager’s faith: a relentless press, direct running, and the decisive touch from the spot after Santi Comesaña clipped him in the area. He nearly doubled the lead minutes later, rattling the crossbar with a swerving effort from distance.
Barcelona’s attacking clarity belied a choppy first half out of possession. The champions were loose in their build-up and open in transition, inviting Villarreal forward. Jules Kounde snuffed out an early Ayoze Pérez chance, then endured a scare when he diverted a cross into his own net — an equalizer erased for offside in the buildup. The Barcelona goalkeeper was busy too, saving smartly from Tajon Buchanan after an Alejandro Balde giveaway.
Veiga’s red card arrived as the temperature rose. Late to a bouncing ball, the Villarreal defender launched into Yamal and caught the teenager with a high, ugly challenge. The dismissal tilted the contest, and Flick’s side controlled the tempo after the break without fully shaking their defensive jitters.
The second goal came on 63 minutes from persistence rather than pattern. A crowded box, a loose ball, and de Jong’s awareness opened the angle for Yamal, who stepped onto the pass and finished crisply into the corner. The teenager’s composure underlined his growing influence in a team still seeking balance under Flick.
Even at two down, Villarreal kept probing. The Barcelona keeper produced standout saves to deny Rafa Marín and Georges Mikautadze, preserving a third consecutive clean sheet across all competitions and helping Barcelona close out the year with three points.
There were caveats. Kounde hobbled off late, adding to defensive concerns after Andreas Christensen’s diagnosis with a partially torn knee ligament. Flick will also want cleaner sequences playing out from the back; against sharper opposition, the first-half sloppiness might have been punished.
Context offered a reminder of how contested this fixture was off the pitch. La Liga scrapped plans in October to stage the match in Miami, returning it to Villarreal’s Estadio de la Cerámica, where a vocal crowd drove the intensity despite the home side’s numerical disadvantage.
Barcelona left with the points and pole position at the season’s midpoint but with work to do. Real Madrid’s 2-0 win over Sevilla on Saturday kept the pressure on, and injuries have started to cluster in Barcelona’s back line. Villarreal, leapfrogged into fourth by Atletico Madrid’s 3-0 win at Girona earlier Sunday, can take heart from the performance if not the result.
“Villarreal are very quick on the counter; they’ve got talented players up front. We could’ve managed to be a bit better… We have to organize ourselves a bit better,” Barcelona captain de Jong said. “But I felt out there on the pitch that we were superior. Not necessarily comfortable, but I think we deserved to win.”
Villarreal captain Dani Parejo lamented the fine margins. “We had loads of really good chances; we could have been more than one goal up at halftime,” he said. “It feels like everything is going against us at the moment; teams are scoring against us with not much, but we are pleased with the image we have shown, how we played with 10 men against a great team. We showed great attitude.”
As the league breaks for the holidays, Barcelona have the table position they wanted — four points clear, form trending upward, and their young star Yamal growing into a match-winner. The next step is sustainability: translating wing brilliance and shot-stopping heroics into a more stable defensive platform when the calendar turns and the title race tightens.
Players of Barcelona celebrate a goal during the La Liga football match between Villarreal and Barcelona in Vila-Real, Spain, Dec. 21, 2025. (Str/Xinhua)
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
