After drawing with Roma and Bayer Leverkusen, the FC Barcelona U19 team picked up their first win in the UEFA Youth League against a BATE Borisov side that struggled to cope with a visitor that governed the possession and created almost all the chances.
Frenchman Theo Chendri put Barça a goal up after 20 minutes, collecting the ball in an advanced position and looking up before placing a precision strike past BATE keeper Scherbitski.
At the other end, Andreu Cases’s net came under very little threat, and half time came around with Barça’s main concern being a nose injury suffered by full back Cucu, who had to be replaced by Adrià Vilanova.
Into the second half, and Chendri had already come frustratingly close before the lead was finally extended in the 70th minute, the highly active Frenchman once again involved, this time supplying the assist for Marc Rio.
Aleñá finished off the job with a fine effort from the edge of the area that glanced in off the left post. Three goals down, the Belarusians livened up in the hope of getting at least something out of the clash, but that only served to open up space for Barça to try to hit them even harder on the counter attack. The three points in the bag, the U19 players now face a long trip home as attention turns to making up for two consecutive defeats in the league against Girona at the weekend.
