Ansu Fati delivered Barcelona a huge Champions League win at Dynamo Kiev in what was likely Sergi Barjuan’s last match in charge.
The interim coach’s spell has not injected much life into the Blaugrana, in between the Ronald Koeman and (in all probability) Xavi eras at the Camp Nou.
Tuesday’s trip to Ukraine was not about the performance however, only the three points that returned to Spain thanks to Fati’s second-half strike.
Barcelona controlled the ball yet showed little end product for much of a scrappy match, whereas their hosts were direct and also first to test a goalkeeper. Marc-Andre ter Stegen used his feet to block Carlos de Pena’s powerful strike.
It wasn’t until the 70th minute when the LaLiga giants managed to do the same, Fati latching onto Carlos Mingueza’s deflected cross to fire home his third goal of the season.
With Bayern Munich beating Benfica in Germany by a 5-2 scoreline, Barcelona’s first away victory of the campaign put them second in Group E with the Bundesliga side the first-place runaways.
Robert Lewandowski scored a hat-trick among strikes from Serge Gnabry and Leroy Sane to all but guarantee Bayern’s route to the last-16 as group leaders.
For Barcelona, attention turns quickly past this game and onto the potential announcement of Xavi’s arrival on Thursday, before a trip to Celta Vigo as they look to rescue their nightmare LaLiga campaign.
