FC Barcelona 5-1 Feyenoord: result and report

Report

FC Barcelona beat Feyenoord 5-1 in the Champions League, and the home win was as one-sided as expected. The scoreline makes FC Barcelona look a little sharper in front of goal than their chances strictly justified. Still, it does not exaggerate the gap between the sides.

FC Barcelona scored in the third minute when Raphinha finished from Lamine Yamal's pass. Karim Adeyemi made it 2-0 on 22 minutes after João Cancelo set him up, so Feyenoord were chasing the game long before half-time.

Raphinha scored his second on 57 minutes from a Pedri assist, while Lamine Yamal added the fourth himself on 77 minutes. Sem Steijn pulled one back for Feyenoord on 82 minutes, set up by Gonçalo Borges. However, Gabriel Jesus restored the four-goal margin three minutes later, again from a Lamine Yamal pass.

Lamine Yamal at the centre of it

Lamine Yamal was the player of the match because he shaped the game at both ends of it. He scored one and created two, including the opener that set the tone and the late fifth that ended Feyenoord's brief response.

FC Barcelona's wider attacking numbers back that up. They made 18 key passes to Feyenoord's three, which explains why chances kept arriving even after the game was won.

Feyenoord: outplayed rather than unlucky

FC Barcelona's chance quality was strong, though their finishing went beyond it. Five goals came from 2.48 xG, which shows the margin owed something to taking chances well.

That should not be mistaken for a close game. FC Barcelona had 17 shots to four, nine on target to two, and hit the woodwork twice. They also had 72% of the ball, and their pressure on the Feyenoord goal was constant rather than in bursts.

The one counter-signal is that Feyenoord created two big chances to FC Barcelona's three. Despite that, their total xG was only 0.61. They found the occasional good opening but almost nothing else.