Barcelona Come From Behind to Beat Galatasaray 4-1 in Istanbul as Yamal Sets Up Two

Barcelona came from a goal down to beat Galatasaray 4-1 at RAMS Park in Istanbul on Tuesday, October 13, in matchday 2 of the Champions League. Three goals in 15 second-half minutes gave Hansi Flick's side two wins from two and a place at the top of the league phase table.

Galatasaray went ahead in the 28th minute against the run of play. Rafael Leão led a fast counter-attack down the left and passed to the middle, and Aleksey Batrakov struck the shot, which took a deflection off João Cancelo on its way into the net. Soon after, Galatasaray thought they had doubled their lead when Barış Alper Yılmaz headed in, but VAR ruled that goal out for offside.

Barcelona levelled just before half-time. In the 43rd minute, Anthony Gordon was in an offside position and let a pass run through to Cancelo, who finished across the goalkeeper.

The second half belonged to Barcelona and Lamine Yamal. In the 50th minute, Yamal crossed and Fermín López headed in to complete the turnaround. Three minutes later, more fine work from Yamal in the box presented Gordon with a chance to score at the near post. Substitute Karim Adeyemi then made it 4-1 in the 65th minute with a low, angled shot after the ball ran past Gabriel Jesus from a Yamal pass.

It was another creative display from Yamal, who has now provided two assists in a single match for the eighth time across all competitions with Barcelona. Four of those have come this season.

Barcelona had 71% of the possession and 21 shots to Galatasaray's five, with 11 shots on target to three. Their expected goals total was 2.78, compared with 0.47 for the hosts. Flick said afterwards that this is Barcelona's quality and strength, and praised the second-half performance. It was also Barcelona's tenth consecutive win in all competitions.

Barcelona travel to reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain next Tuesday.