Barcelona dominated the ball for 77 percent of the evening at Estadio Mendizorrotza, racked up 676 passes, and still walked away with nothing. Ibrahima Diabate’s first-half header gave Alaves a 1-0 victory in La Liga’s Round 36 on May 13, handing Hansi Flick’s side a damaging and embarrassing defeat. Flick threw on three substitutes at the hour mark in a desperate bid to salvage a response, but Barcelona never once troubled the Alaves goalkeeper, finishing with zero shots on target across 90 minutes.
Key Moments
- 45′, Ibrahima Diabate scores for Alaves with a normal goal right at the stroke of halftime, giving the hosts a lead they would protect for the entire second half.
- 46′, Marcus Rashford picks up a yellow card in the opening minute of the second half after a foul, adding to Barcelona’s frustrations as they look to immediately respond.
- 62′, Flick makes a triple substitution, bringing on Bardghji, Casado, and Cubarsi in a clear attempt to inject urgency and reshape the team. The moves fail to produce a single shot on goal.
- 89′, Joao Cancelo receives a yellow card for a foul deep into stoppage time, summing up a thoroughly frustrated evening for the Barcelona squad.
Tactical Breakdown
On paper, this was one of the most lopsided possession contests in recent La Liga memory. Barcelona controlled 77 percent of the ball, completed 605 of 676 passes at an 89 percent accuracy rate, and attempted eight total shots. The problem was quality over quantity: every single one of those attempts missed the target or was blocked, leaving goalkeeper Antonio Sivera with nothing to save. Alaves, by contrast, had just 23 percent possession but managed three shots on goal from only nine total efforts, generating 0.66 expected goals against Barcelona’s 0.59. The hosts were more clinical in 23 percent of the match than Flick’s men were in the remaining 77.
The tactical turning point came when Flick emptied a significant portion of his bench in the 62nd minute, bringing on Rashminton Bardghji, Marc Casado, and Pau Cubarsi simultaneously. The triple change altered shape and personnel but not output. Barcelona still could not manufacture a clear opportunity inside the box, where they managed only four of their eight shots. Alaves coach Quique Sanchez Flores responded pragmatically by substituting Diabate himself off in the 64th minute once the goal-scorer’s job was done, protecting the lead with a deeper, more compact defensive block in a 5-3-2 structure that ultimately held firm.
What cost Barcelona the match was a near-total failure to convert territorial dominance into danger. With zero shots on target in 90 minutes, Wojciech Szczesny was not called upon to make a save at the other end after the interval. The midfield carousel of substitutions suggested Flick could not identify a consistent solution, and Rashford’s early yellow card disrupted any attacking rhythm before it could build. A side that generated over two-thirds of the possession should expect to create more than 0.59 xG. They did not, and Alaves punished that inefficiency ruthlessly.
Player Ratings
Verdict
This defeat is a significant blow to Barcelona’s season narrative heading into the final two rounds of La Liga. Hansi Flick’s side was outfought and outthought by a mid-table Alaves outfit despite enjoying overwhelming possession, and a zero-shot-on-target return at this stage of the campaign raises serious questions about their attacking sharpness. For Alaves and Quique Sanchez Flores, it is a memorable scalp and a welcome injection of points as they look to consolidate their final standing.