Former Benfica boss beats Barcelona, denies Flick 100 points | OneFootball

Barcelona stumbled on their trip to the Basque Country and were beaten 1-0 by Alavés, in a match in which the side coached by Quique Flores, former Benfica manager, made the most of the Spanish champions’ drop in intensity. The defeat also prevented Hansi Flick from reaching the symbolic 100-point mark in La Liga.

After clinching the title in the previous round, the Catalans lined up with several changes to the starting XI and struggled to impose their usual competitive tempo. Alavés started more aggressively and kept causing problems for the Blaugrana defence, strongly backed by the atmosphere in the stands.

Quique Flores’ team were ultimately rewarded in first-half stoppage time. Following a corner kick, Ibrahim Diabaté found himself unmarked in the box and took advantage of Barcelona’s passive defending to score the only goal of the match in the 45+1st minute.

In the second half, Hansi Flick brought on some of the team’s main stars, including João Cancelo - who made European history - in an attempt to change the course of the game. Even so, Barcelona never truly managed to raise the tempo or create enough chances to avoid defeat.

With this win, Alavés took an important step in the fight to stay in Spain’s top flight, moving out of the relegation zone. Barcelona, meanwhile, despite remaining comfortably at the top of the table, missed the chance to end the season with an even more impressive points tally.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.