Almería 0-2 FC Barcelona: Fermín's double salute

FC Barcelona have as good as assured themselves the runners-up spot and hence a place in next season’s Spanish Super Cup.

After losing at Montilivi less than a fortnight ago, it looked we were headed for a nervy finish to La Liga. But while Girona could only take one of six possible points from their own games, Barça have win both of theirs, 2-0 at home to Real Sociedad and by the same scoreline on Thursday night at the home of bottom club Almería.

That puts four points between the Catalan rivals with just two games to go. Three points from either of the remaining games against Rayo Vallecano and Sevilla and Barça can start booking their tickets to Saudi Arabia.

Fermín double

The hero of tonight’s encounter was Fermín López, who in his debut season has now made it to ten goals (seven of those in La Liga), two of them courtesy of tonight’s brace on his native Andalusian coast.

The first came just inside the quarter hour. Héctor Fort whipped in a sweet little cross and Fermin got his head on the end of it to put Barça into a well-deserved lead.

And he followed that with a second in the 67th minute. It was a smart finish from the 21-year-old after fine run down the left followed by an equally smooth backward pass by his captain Sergi Roberto.

Almería howlers

The Catalans were comfortably in control of the proceedings, but Almería, without a single win at the Power Horse Stadium this season and desperate to give their fans something to cheer about, certainly had plenty to say along the way.

Indeed, the home side could not only have equalised but even taken the lead had it not been for a series of bizarre misses.

Léo Baptistão did brilliantly to work his way forward to shoot but made a complete mess of the finish, Adri Embarba hit the post and Anthony Lozano blasting an absolute sitter wide of the post just about summed up Almería’s disappointing season.

Some real let-offs for Barça there, but even without ever putting their feet down too firmly on the gas, this was a game that they never looked in any serious danger of losing.

A memorable one it wasn’t. But Barça got what they needed and can now look forward to the chance to finish of the job against Rayo on Sunday. That one kicks off at 7pm CEST.