Barcelona wins its 100th game against Girona thanks to Pedri's goal. B Republic Aeon

BARCELONA, SPAIN
Barcelona had trouble scoring and was missing its top two scorers, so they turned to Pedri to make sure they got to the halfway point of the Spanish league before Real Madrid. Pedri scored as a sub to help Barcelona beat Girona 1-0 on Saturday, which was his 100th game with the team. He was only 20 years old.

The Spain midfielder, who has become a key part of Xavi’s plan to rebuild the team after Messi left, became the second-youngest player in club history to play 100 games. Girona kept the league leader from scoring until Pedri’s teammate Jordi Alba found him with a low cross close to the goal in the 61st minute. Pedri has scored six goals this season, including the only goal in a win over Getafe in the last round. In 2021, he won the Kopa Trophy and the Golden Boy awards as the continent’s most promising under-21 player.”My coach told me to do this,” Pedri said about his goals. “I knew I had to get better at scoring, and now that I’m getting closer to the goal, the goals are coming.” Before Sunday, when Real Madrid played third-placed Real Sociedad, they were six points ahead of Barcelona.
Pedri was on the bench to start the game because Xavi was switching up his lineup before next week’s games against Real Betis and Seville. He took over for Ousmane Dembélé in the 25th minute after the forward felt something wrong with his left thigh after running. Barcelona hasn’t said anything about his health yet. He left the field and sat in the stands to watch the rest of the game. Dembélé was hurt a lot in his first few years with Barcelona, but he hasn’t had a serious injury since November 2021, when he came back from a knee problem. Dembélé was hurt, according to Xavi, but the exact nature of the injury won’t be known until an exam on Sunday.
“It’s too bad, because he’s one of our most decisive players,” Xavi said about his fast winger. Dembélé has scored eight goals this season and is Barcelona’s best attacker when he is alone with the defender. That meant that Barcelona had to play this season without its top scorers. Robert Lewandowski, who has the most goals in the league with 13, just finished a three-game ban. Ferran Torres, a forward, was also taken off the field. Ansu Fati and Raphinha weren’t getting much going in attack, so Xavi put Alba in for Marcos Alonso at left back at halftime to help find a way through. Alba was able to get down the left side and cross the ball across the goalmouth after a series of one-touch passes freed him up. Goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga let the ball slip through his hands, and Pedri made sure that Barcelona’s winning streak in all competitions went to eight games. Bojan Krkic was 19 years, 2 months, and 24 days old when he made his 100th appearance for Barcelona. Before Pedri beat him, Messi was the second youngest player to reach the same mark. At 20 years, 2 months, and 3 days old, Pedri did it. Messi was 20 and 8 months and 3 days old.

The team in 12th place, Girona, didn’t do anything offensively until a late push. In the 86th minute, Ivan Martn was left all alone in front of the goal. However, he volleyed a cross high and wide. In the last minute of play, Michel, the coach of Girona, was given a direct red card for protesting loudly what he thought was a foul on one of his players.Michel said, “We worked hard and played a good game.” “We only tried to scare them twice or three times, but they only had one chance, which they took. “The loss is not fair, given what we saw on the field.”

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