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Barcelona beat Galatasaray 2-1 in the Europa League last-16 second leg fixture in Istanbul on Thursday. The result helped Xavi’s side to go through to the quarter-finals of the competition with an aggregate score-line of 2-1 as the first leg had finished goalless. Pedri canceled out Marcos Teixeira’s opener before the break, and then Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored the winner just four minutes into the second half. The Turkish side once again put up a tremendous flight but Barca just had enough quality to go through to the next round.
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FULL TIME! #GalatasarayBarça pic.twitter.com/EpJt9svU68
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) March 17, 2022
Galatasaray took a much more proactive approach at NEF Stadyumu and created a good opportunity inside the opening five minutes when Bafitimbi Gomis outmuscled Eric Garcia to get on the end of a long ball from the back. But Jordi Alba made a fabulous block to deny the Frenchman from inside the box.
As the game progressed, Barca slowly settled in and played some nice one-touch football. Aubameyang and Sergio Busquets combined pretty well to release Frenkie De Jong on goal but the Dutchman’s effort went just wide.
Barca were struggling to deal with the long balls and another such long pass found Ryan Babel on the right who forced a decent save from Marc-Andre ter Stegen. The hosts took the lead on 28 minutes when Alexandru Cicaldau’s corner from the right flank was headed home by captain Maracau.
But Barca continued to play their beautiful passing game, kept the ball possession and leveled the score with a wonderful team move on 37 minutes. Torres collected the ball from De Jong and played a nice little through ball for Pedri inside the box, the Spaniard dodged and shimmed his way through a minefield of Galatasaray defenders before slotting home past Inaki Pena into the back of the net.
Towards the end of first half, Aubameyang’s header from Adama Taore’s cross hit the crossbar and went out. Moments after the interval, the visitors took the lead through Aubameyang. Pena made a brilliant double-save to deny Busquets and Pedri but the ball eventually fell to Aubameyang in front of goal, and the Gabon international made no mistake as he put the ball inside the net.
At the other end, left-back Patrick van Aanholt’s long ranger went just over the bar. Barca controlled the final quarter of the game experty, they kept the ball, passed it around and the opposition could barely create another attempt on goal.
In the stoppages, Xavi’s side could have scored twice. First, Busquets played a nice littlegive-and-go with Memphis Depay before releasing Torres on goal. But the Spaniard’s shot rattled the crossbar. And then, Depay’s shot from Alba’s cross went just wide of the post.
