Ten-man Barcelona overcome Mallorca
Reuters - Saturday 24 March 2012, 18:55
Ten-man Barcelona closed to
within three points of La Liga leaders Real Madrid when Lionel
Messi struck his 35th goal of the campaign in a 2-0 win at Real
Mallorca on Saturday.
The Argentine World Player of the Year, who has now scored
18 goals in his last nine games for his club, fired Barca ahead
in the 25th minute at the Iberostar Estadio.
The Mallorca defenders failed to deal with his inswinging
free-kick from the right and it flew past goalkeeper Dudu Aouate
into the corner of the net.
Barca were on cruise control until 12 minutes into the
second half when midfielder Thiago Alcantara was harshly
adjudged to have handled the ball and the referee showed him a
second yellow card.
The champions endured a nervy 20 minutes before a Messi shot
cannoned back off Aouate's left-hand post and centre-back Gerard
Pique was on had to slot the rebound into the empty net.