Barcelona will go into the international break in fifth place in the La Liga table thanks to a hard-fought 1-0 win over Alavés in the Basque Country. Barça played a poor game and never looked like scoring, but Frenkie De Jong provided a crucial late winner to keep Barça in strong position to contend for the Top 4.
FIRST HALF
The story of the first half was very simply Barça’s inability to sustain attacks: the Blaugrana did a good job throughout the period of moving the ball from back to front and escaping Alavés’ press, but the decision-making in the final third was just awful.