The Blaugrana clinched a narrow win to secure a spot in the Europa League quarter-finals.
Barcelona defeated Galatasaray 2-1 in the second leg of their last-16 Europa League clash on Thursday. It came after a goalless draw in the first leg, sending the Catalans to the next round of the European competition.
Aubameyang with a match-winner! ⚽
Barcelona came into the game on the back of their 4-0 win over Osasuna on Sunday. The Catalans started the game with enough confidence to secure an early breakthrough.
However, their patience only provided the hosts with a chance to go ahead in the 28th minute. Following a cross from Alexandru Cicâldău, Marcao broke the deadlock with a brilliant header to make it 1-0 for Galatasaray.
Similar to what we have seen from Barca in their recent games, they immediately started to intensify their attacks after the goals. Only ten minutes later, the Catalans levelled the result through Pedri.
It did not take Barca too long to score their second goal of the night. The Catalans made a perfect start to the second period when Pierre- Emerick Aubameyang made it 2-1 in the 49th minute. A brilliant double save from Pena was not enough to prevent the former Arsenal star from scoring his sixth goal for Barca.
The Catalans continued their dominance until the end of the game while repelling Gala’s efforts to score an equalizer. They even had the chance to extend their lead, but Pena’s heroics prevented them from scoring more goals.
What’s next for Barcelona?
The 2-1 win on aggregate sends Barca into the quarter-finals of the Europa League. The Blaugrana will discover their next opponents in the competition on Friday.
Barca will then face Real Madrid in one of their most important games of the season on Sunday.
Check out a betting tip on the upcoming El Clasico here!
Player Ratings
Galatasaray: Pena (7); Boey (6), Nelsson (5), Marcao (7), Van Aanholt (6); Kutlu (6), Antalyali (7); Babel (6), Cicaldau (7), Akturkoglu (6); Gomis (5).
Bench: Mohamed (6), Morutan (5), Bayram (6), Dervisoglu (7).
Barcelona: Ter Stegen (6); Dest (7), Garcia (6), Pique (7), Alba (6); De Jong (7), Busquets (7), Pedri (8); Traore (6), Aubameyang (8), Torres (7).
Bench: Araujo (6), Gavi (5), Depay (7), Lenglet (6), Dembele (7).
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