{"id":1375,"date":"2026-01-22T13:18:49","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T05:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/?p=1375"},"modified":"2026-01-22T13:18:51","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T05:18:51","slug":"barcelona-rally-past-slavia-prague-to-keep-top-eight-hopes-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/22\/barcelona-rally-past-slavia-prague-to-keep-top-eight-hopes-alive\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona rally past Slavia Prague to keep top-eight hopes alive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"638\" src=\"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-13.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1376\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-13.png 1000w, https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-13-300x191.png 300w, https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-13-768x490.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Fermin Lopez&#8217;s first-half brace and second-half goals by Dani Olmo and Robert Lewandowski earned Barcelona a 4-2 Champions League win at Slavia Prague on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The result keeps Barcelona in contention for a top-eight finish in the league phase, which guarantees direct passage to the last 16. The Catalans face FC Copenhagen at home in their final league phase game next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Barca got back to winning ways on a freezing night in Prague after Sunday&#8217;s La Liga loss at San Sebastian ended a run of 11 successive victories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reigning Czech champions Slavia, returning from a winter break, had previously only managed three draws and two goals in the Champions League this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But they took the lead in 10 minutes as striker Vasil Kusej forced the ball across the goal line at the far post after Tomas Holes&#8217;s glancing header from a corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lopez pulled Barca level in the 34th minute following a pass from skipper Frenkie de Jong that found him unmarked in the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lopez gave the Catalans the lead eight minutes later with a low shot that caught Slavia goalkeeper Jindrich Stanek unprepared. But Slavia drew level just before half-time as Lewandowski deflected a corner into Joan Garcia&#8217;s net.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Olmo spared Barca blushes as he blasted superbly into the top corner in the 63rd minute, three minutes after replacing Pedri.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And Lewandowski found the right net on 71 minutes when he slotted home from close range from a Marcus Rashford pass. Hansi Flick was without the suspended Lamine Yamal and striker Ferran Torres due to a muscle injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The game started with a minute&#8217;s silence for the victims of Sunday&#8217;s train crash in Spain that left 43 dead. Slavia were eliminated after a fourth loss in seven European outings left them third-bottom in the standings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fermin Lopez&#8217;s first-half brace and second-half goals by Dani Olmo and Robert Lewandowski earned Barcelona a 4-2 Champions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1375"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1377,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375\/revisions\/1377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}