In the early morning of January 24, Beijing time, the 22nd round of La Liga continued, with Barcelona playing away to Alaves. In the end, Barca relied on De Jong's only goal to beat their opponents 1-0, won their first wins in the last four games, and accumulated 35 points to rise to the fifth place in La Liga, one point away from the top four.
With the departure of Messi this season, Barca completely collapsed, first out of the Champions League group stage, then the Western Super Cup stopped in the semi-finals, and then the Copa del Rey stopped in the round of sixteen, just over half of the season, and did not qualify for the three championships in advance.
In addition, Barca have accumulated 32 points in 20 rounds of La Liga, ranking seventh, and are 17 points behind the leader Real Madrid in the first round of the game, and the title is hopeless, and the team faces the four empty of the season. Barca now have only four goals left in La Liga, and are currently four points behind fourth-placed Atletico Inletico in the next round, so this round against Alaves is very crucial.
Coach Xavi sent Phelan Torres, Luc De Jong and Abd forward trident on the front line, and after the opening, besieged the Alaves backline, but the pace of the game was very slow, and there were many mistakes, creating few threatening attacks. At the end of the first half, the score was still 0-0, Barca had more than 75% of the ball, and 2 shots on target were on target.
The second half was fought again until the 87th minute, when Alba crossed diagonally to the right of the penalty area, Ferrantores crossed the ball to the front of the goal, and Frankie De Jong pushed the goal to help Barca complete the 1-0 kill.
Barca almost went on a cold side, but De Jong's goal saved the team, and manager Xavi celebrated with a fist on the sidelines.
After the win, Barca reached 35 points, surpassing Villarreal and Real Sociedad to rise to 5th place in La Liga, and only one point away from fourth-placed Atletico, and there is still great hope for competition for Champions League qualification next season.
A match that ended earlier, the leader Real Madrid played at home against relegation side Elche. Real Madrid fell behind 0-2 at one point, and in the second half Modric and Militão scored separately to help Real Madrid draw 2-2 in the last minute, ending a five-game winning streak in all competitions. Real Madrid reached 50 points and continue to rank first, four points ahead of second-placed Sevilla.