A terrific strike from Pedro Rodriguez helped Barcelona equal their best ever start to a league season with a nervy 1-0 home victory over Almeria on Saturday.
Barcelona’s sixth successive win, matching a club record set in 1991 and 1998, also sees the defending champions replace Real Madrid at the summit of La Liga.
Pedro, the latest Barcelona youth player to make the breakthrough, turned sharply before rifling home an unstoppable 31st-minute shot to follow up his goal against Dinamo Kiev in midweek.
PHOTO: AFP
“It is always nice to score and win, however, the coach won’t be happy because we misplaced a lot of passes in our build-up play and didn’t create as many chances as in other games,” Pedro said.
It was a special day for Barcelona captain Carles Puyol, 31, who celebrated a decade at the club having made his league debut against Valladolid back on Oct. 2, 1999.
Coach Pep Guardiola handed Andres Iniesta his first league start this season and the Spanish international found Lionel Messi with a fine pass after 10 minutes but the Argentine’s shot did not have enough curl to creep into the net.
Almeria were breaking the game up with a string of fouls and referee Velasco Carballo was jeered by the home fans for failing to dish out yellow cards to the perpetrators.
With 31 minutes gone Pedro scored a goal from nowhere, receiving a pass with his left foot before turning swiftly and unleasing a fierce curling shot into the corner with his right foot.
It was a superb strike from the 22-year-old and the home fans sung his name to show their appreciation.
Almeria coach Hugo Sanchez was an exciting striker for Real Madrid but his side packed men behind the ball in the second half as if they were the ones defending a 1-0 lead.
“It is a real shame that teams just come here to shut up shop and stop us playing, but we will have to get used to it,” Barcelona midfielder Xavi said.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, celebrating his 28th birthday, almost continued his record of scoring in every Barcelona league game but his 80th-minute drive was saved by Diego Alves to deny him a sixth goal of the season.
Meanwhile, Atletico Madrid finally won their first league game of the campaign defeating Real Zaragoza 2-1 at home to lift the pressure on coach Abel Resino.
Midfielder Jose Jurado, back at the club after a season on loan at Real Mallorca, gave Atletico the lead after just two minutes.
But the side from the capital were indebted to 18-year-old goalkeeper David de Gea for saving a 20th-minute penalty from Jorge Lopez.
Injuries forced Resino to hand a league debut to third choice de Gea and he came up trumps with his penalty save which proved crucial as Antonio Lopez doubled Atletico’s lead in the 65th minute before Brazilian Ewerthon pulled one back with another Zaragoza penalty.
Atletico climb to 13th and will hope to build on this success as they target the top four.
Deportivo La Coruna continued their impressive start to the new campaign by climbing up to fourth with a 1-0 win at Tenerife.
Tenerife had a 100 percent home record following wins over Athletic Bilbao and Osasuna but Deportivo ended that run thanks to a goal from defender Diego Colotto.
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