Barcelona earned a narrow win over Villarreal to extend its unbeaten run in La Liga and stretch its overall lead over Real Madrid in the process.
Pedri scored the only goal of the game in the 18th minute at the Estadio de la Ceramica as the leaders provisionally went 11 points clear of Madrid in search of their first league title since 2019.
In a physical affair from the start, the game’s first chance fell to Robert Lewandowski in the 8th minute but the league’s top scorer was denied by Pepe Reina to keep things level. The striker had better luck as a provider as he set up Pedri for his goal after a neat interplay between the two before the 20-year-old clipped the ball past Reina for the game’s only goal.
Villarreal continued to hog the possession but failed to create much with Ronald Arujo denying them anytime they threatened to break forward.
At the other end, Lewandowski and Raphinha went close for the visitors, almost doubling their lead.
The physicality claimed its first victim in the 35th minute when Villarreal’s Francis Coquelin suffered a nasty knee injury. The game also saw 8 yellow cards dished out with 4 players from each side receiving warnings.
Villarreal and Barcelona repeated the same pattern in the second half with Lewandowski again coming short in the final stages with Reina denying the Pole one last time but could not prevent his side from rescuing a draw at least.
The win takes Barcelona to 56 points from 21 games, 11 ahead of Madrid who has a game in hand due to their Club World Cup commitments with Real Sociedad in third with 39 points.
