Lamine Yamal Did Not Decrease Even Though He Was Just Injured

Lamine Yamal immediately contributed a goal after recovering from injury in Barcelona's victory over Athletic Bilbao (Instagram/@fcbarcelona).

JAKARTA - Goals from Gavi and Lamine Yamal gave Barcelona a 2-0 win over Athletic Bilbao in the semifinals of the Spanish Super Cup in Jeddah, Thursday, January 9, 2025, early morning WIB.

The victory brought Barcelona to the Spanish Super Cup (Supercopa de Espana) final for the third in a row.

Gavi opened the scoring in the 17th minute and Yamal doubled Barca's lead seven minutes after the break.

Barcelona, Spain's most successful team with 14 trophies, will face another semifinal winner between Real Madrid vs Mallorca in the final on Sunday, January 12, 2025.

The spotlight after the match was on young Lamine Yamal players. The 17-year-old player looks like he doesn't seem like a person who just recovered from injury.

In fact, Yamal has often been plagued by ankle injuries this season. The problem left him five games out in all competitions, including the last two games before meeting Athletic Bilbao.

However, a performance in the semifinals of the Spanish Super Cup confirmed why Manager Hansi Flick had staked the winger since the start of the match.

However, Flick realized that Yamal had not recovered properly so he had to be replaced in the middle of the second half.

"He just recovered from injury. We had to make changes. He only played 60 minutes or 65 minutes, after that we had to make a change, it was very clear."

"I'm very happy. So we're aiming for a 2-0 win, it's really good for us. We're in the final, this is our goal. We're also happy because we didn't concede."

"The team played well and I am happy. We deserved to win today," Flick said after the game.

Meanwhile, Barcelona made their first chance through Raphinha, the first to take an acrobatic volley, but goalkeeper Unai Simon can still deny it.

The Blaugrana will soon get results for their initial attack. Pedri fed the ball to Alejandro Balde who went wide in the penalty area.

Balde then passed the ball to Gavi. From outside the box he fired a shot that passed Simon's feet.

Barcelona should have doubled their lead, but Raphinha fired a shot right at goalkeepers when they received a pass from Yamal.

Athletic Bilbao threatened again. It's just that, Wojciech Szczesny, who is believed to keep Barcelona's goal performing brilliantly.

He stopped a low cross from Yuri Muchiche with Gorka Guruzeta waiting in front of goal, which should have been an easy goal. The Polish goalkeeper then thwarted Inaki Williams' effort before the break.

In the second half, Gavi provided a beautiful forward pass controlled by Lamal before bringing the ball into the penalty area. Calmly, he fired his shot to outwit Simon.

Athletic Bilbao has backed up Nico Williams who is not yet fully fit from the core team, but the winger has to act as his team lags behind.

Athletic Bilbao's best chance was made by Inaki who fired a shot from a viable position, but the ball was not on target.

Oscar de Marcos and Inaki Williams both scored for Athletic at the end of the game, but were ruled out for offside.

Barcelona finally deserve their place in the Spanish Super Cup final.

The good news is that the decision of the Spanish National Sports Council (CSD) on Wednesday, January 8, 2025, allowed Barcelona to temporarily register Dani Olmo and Pau Victor. Both will now be available to play in the Spanish Super Cup finals.