Barcelona vs Cádiz summary: score, goals, highlights | LaLiga 2022-23

Barcelona eight points clear of Real Madrid

There will be more reaction from the game coming up on AS USA over the coming hours. For now, I will leave you with the current state of play at the top of LaLiga. 

Eight points is a big gap for Real Madrid to close give the rate at which Barcelona are picking up points. Xavi Hernández's men are going to take some stopping. 

Barcelona coach Xavi Hernández: "We sealed the victory in two or three minutes"

Was it a comfortable victory?

We more or less sealed the victory in two or three minutes. We had a good first half but dropped off in the second. We didn't like how close Cádiz came to scoring at the end, but it's normal because we have a lot of games to play. But we're happy. This victory is an important one.

Ansu often played centrally.

We always say that we attack in one way and defend in another. I think we were able to find Gavi well so that we could cause their defence problems. Overall, I think we did well.

Happy for Sergi Roberto?

Yes. He's a player who can play in several positions, and he's fantastic. Ferran has taken a step forward in terms of gaining confidence. I'm happy with the changes I made.

Do you think Ferran plays better on the right, like the other wingers on the roster?

Yes, we have a bit of a mess there (laughs). Well, we have a lot options. The important thing is that they are all fighting for the same cause. 

Did you think about the match at Old Trafford?

More than thinking about the game Manchester, I was thinking about how many minutes players had played. 

Cádiz still two points above the relegation zone

Cádiz weren't expected to take anything home from Camp Nou but only a three-minute spell just before half-time undid them. They remain two points above the bottom three, although Getafe and Valencia can both move above them with a win tomorrow. Cádiz host Rayo Vallecano in their next league match next weekend. 

Barcelona travel to Old Trafford to face Manchester United on Thursday

Barcelona are in a great position at the top of LaLiga but they have work to do if they are to make it through to the round of 16 of the Europa League. The Catalans played out an entertaining 2-2 draw against Manchester United on Thursday and will play the return leg at Old Trafford this coming Thursday. 

We'd all love to see a repeat of the first leg...

Ferran Torres: "I'm so proud to hear the fans chanting my name"

We're happy. We have consolidated and in the last few games we've been doing well, although we've been strong since the start of the league. I'm working hard to show what I can do. I hadn't been playing much from the start but I'm trying to show what I have to offer, what I've been showing for while and every time I get the chance, I'll try to prove my worth. I've not been playing much recently and sometimes it's hard to show what you can do because of the pressure and everything. I'm so proud to here the fans chanting my name and now I need to work hard because the most difficult thing is to keep it up. 

Some good pressure high up the pitch from Cádiz but Barcelona just do enough to play their way out of trouble.

Barcelona have totally switched off in the last 10 or 15 minutes. But they're going to see this one out. 

Three minutes of injury time.

Yet another opportunity for Cádiz! A big chance for Fali and he knows it. The defender heads wide from eight yards when he should have done much better. 

Cádiz hit the post!

This is not ending how we thought it was going to! Lozano is all alone in the box, gets on the end of a cross from the right and divertsa header against the post. 

League debut for Ángel Alarcón

That's Fati's last involvement. 18-year-old Ángel Alarcón comes on for his league debut for Barcelona. What a moment!

Fati's miserable night in front of goal continues as he swivels on a Raphinha pass in the box and skews one wide of the goal. 

Barcelona need to keep their eye on the ball here, the subs have really disrupted them.

Cádiz close again! Ramos then gets on the end of the corner and beats Ter Stegen to the ball but he can't keep his header down! This has been an unexpected flurry from the visitors!

Superb save from Ter Stegen!

This is a much better save! Ramos does superbly well to wriggle his way past a number of Barcelona defenders and into the box, his poke goalwards looks to be going in but Ter Stegen gets a crucial hand on it to touch it onto the post and wide!

First save for Ter Stegen!

Almost! Ter Stegen is forced into action for the first time as San Emeterio gets his head on the corner. It was a fairly comfortable save in the end. 

I've said this already but I'm going to say it again. Corner for Cádiz. Maybe this could instigate a comeback...

Lewandowski off for Barcelona

Also a change for Barça, as Lewandowski is replaced by Raphinha. 

Ramos on for Martí in Cádiz's last change. 

Ahhhhh, it looked as if Torres was going to get the goal his performances has deserved but a combination of an offside flag and a well-timed interception from Carcelén stop him in his tracks. 

A lovely bit of skill from Ansu Fati to get away from Carcelén but it eventually comes to nothing, which sums up his game so far. 

One sub each

Kessié on for de Jong for Barça.

San Emeterio replaces Alcaraz for Cádiz. 

'No' is the short answer. Alcaraz pulls it back for Alejo, who gets his effort on goal horribly wrong and it flies well over. 

Corner to Cádiz. Could this be their way back into this contest?

First Barça booking for De Jong, who elbows Alcaraz in the face in a midfield tussle. I think it was accidental...

Not Ansu Fati's day in front of goal so far. Torres cuts the ball back to him but he gets the ball nicked off his toes just when it looks as if he's about the burst the net. 

Triple change for Cádiz

Sobrino, Lozano, Alejo on for Escalante, Ocampo and Bongonda. 

Sergio is going for it!

Fair play to Cádiz, they haven't given up the ghost. They still believe they can get something out of this and why not? They've had the ball in the net as many times as their hosts...

Second Cádiz goal ruled out!

Martí has the ball in the net again but it's ruled out again! This time for a supposed "foul" by Fali on Ter Stegen from a corner. Hmm...

I'm not sure I've mentioned Koundé so far as he's barely been involved but he does brilliantly to win a corner there. The set-piece is cleared out to Gavi, whose dinked header is flicked over right in front of goal by Lewandowski. He was onside there, much to his surprise!

Christensen has barely put a foot wrong in his recent performances and he's carried on in the same vein here. A dominant performance from him so far. 

Torres is a man on a mission and Alcaraz pays the price with a yellow card. The Barça winger skips past Arzamendi as if he's not there and almost does the same to the Cádiz midfielder, who clips him and gives away a foul. 

Almost a chance for Cádiz as García takes a risk in defence and loses the ball in a dangerous area. That ball doesn't quite fall to a yellow shirt in the box though. 

Torres hasn't played much of late but he's well up for this game! He finds himself in space on the edge of the box and rifles one towards goal but it's too high and ends up in the stand. 

Torres again involved as his whips a free-kick into the near post, Fati meets it but can't get his effort on target. 

Almost a third for Barcelona immediately! Arzamendia gets across well to block from Torres at the back post.

Second half underway!

Back underway at Camp Nou! 

Barcelona going eight points clear of Real Madrid

How good does that look, Barça fans? 

For any Real Madrid fans reading, stay with me, 2-0 is soccer "most dangerous" scoreline, they say...

Quick-fire goals give Barcelona the lead over Cádiz

Those goals came so close together that I didn't even get to warn you that we were playing the injury-time which Lewandowski scored in. An uphill (is 'upmountain' a word?) battle for Cádiz now, you'd have to say...

Half-time: Barcelona 2-0 Cádiz

Cádiz will be wondering what on earth just happened. Sure, Barcelona were pressing and had the visitors pinned back for long spells. But the hosts had only shown flashes of danger, with Ledesma in the Cádiz goal having next to nothing to do.

Sergio’s men even had the ball in the net first but Roger Martí’s strike was correctly ruled out for offside. Barça didn’t especially look as if they were going to make the breakthrough before half-time, with Ferran Torres curling one wide and Sergi Roberto drawing the only save of the half from Ledesma.

But, like the old London buses, the long-awaited first goal was quickly followed by a second. And it was little surprise that Torres was the instigator, with his trickery on the right flank leading to a chance for Lewandowski, whose effort was cleared off the line to Roberto, who smashed the follow-up into the net. And in the very next attack, Roberto worked the ball into the Lewandowski at the edge of the box and the Pole’s low strike flew beyond the Cádiz keeper.

What a sucker-punch for the visitors, who had defended so well!

Could Barcelona be going eight points clear again? I think they could...

Great block from Carcelén!

That was a beauty of a cross from Torres which Lewandowski looked certain to head into the net...

BUT NO! Carcelén gets in the way and the ball comes off the Pole on the way out. 

Fali is the man who gets on the end of it but his header bobbles well wide. 

Fali is OK to continue and his team have gone straight up the pitch and won a corner of their own. What can they do here?

A little break in play as Fali goes down clutching his face. He collided with Christensen at a Barcelona corner (which was well defended). 

A bit of shirt holding going on in the box there from Hernández on Lewandowski...if VAR doesn't clamp down on that, we'll never get rid of it. 

Barcelona are pressing but they don't look especially like scoring (how long until they score now that I've said it?). 

Ledesma off his line quick to prevent Torres from getting onto Gavi's pass down the right. Alert stuff from the Cádiz stopper. 

A good old-fashioned long throw from Luis Hernández, well punched clear by Ter Stegen, who punches a cross into the box clear a matter of seconds later. 

A neat counterattack from Cádiz ends up with Ocampo bizarrely firing the ball straight to Ter Stegen when he had men in good positions in support. He got that one all wrong. 

Great defending from Arzamendi as Torres tries to get round the outside of him. No way through for the Barça attacker there. 

Disappointing from Alcaraz, whose ball into the box doesn't get past the near post. 

A free-kick for Cádiz in a VERY dangerous position here. It looked a bit of a dubious foul on Ocampo, to be honest...

First save for Ledesma!

Sergi Roberto is first to test Ledesma with a low shot from the edge of the box. The Cádiz beats it away and it falls to Fati, who shoots over. 

Martí booked

Martí slides in on García rather needlessly...yellow card. 

Ansu Fati is next to threaten and almost bundles way through into a goalscoring position, only for Carcelén to get a vital foot in. 

Close from Torres!

Torres has come to life in the last five minutes or so! Fali ridiculously tries to backflick the ball away from danger, Torres pounces on it, cuts inside and curls one towards the far post but it flies narrowly wide. 

Martí goal disallowed!

Cádiz have the ball in the net! But it's ruled offside. Martí finally manages to escape the attentions of the Barcelona central defenders, leaves García on his backside and slots past Ter Stegen! But he was just offside. 

Torres again involved as he's played in on right and looks for Lewandowski. The ball is cut out just before is reaches the Pole in front of goal. 

Twinkletoes from Ferran Torres as he nutmegs Arzamendia out on the right and makes his way into the box only to be crowded out before he can get a shot away. 

A crucial block from Christensen as a free-kick games into the Barça box and lands at the feet of Bongonda! That was troubling Ter Stegen. 

Better from Balde as he pulls a cross back from the left for Fati...who completely misses his kick! You or I could have done that (although probably not most of the other things that the Barça winger does, to be fair)!

Going to be a long old evening up front for Cádz striker Roger Martí, I think. García and Christensen have him under control so far and unable to keep hold of possession. 

A free-flowing move - which had a bit of luck about it, if we're honest - sees Barcelona move from their own box to their opponents' in no time but another heavy touch from Balde means the attack breaks down at the crucial moment. 

Up the other end and a loose ball falls to Gavi in the box...blocked! That was promising for Barça. 

A chance for Bongonda to get away from Balde and play the ball from for Martí but García does well to intercept the pass when it looked as if something might be on. 

A decent defensive shape from Cádiz so far, which hasn't given Barcelona too much encouragement. They're trying to play out from the back too. 

Four minutes. That's all it's taken Gavi to get involved in some off-the-ball nonsense with Alcaraz. 

Who had four minutes?

That corner is cleared back out to Torres, who took it, and his second delivery finds the head of García, who glances well wide. 

A corner for Barcelona but it could've been more! Gavi switches the ball from right to left for Balde, who is in plenty of space but a really poor touch means he's unable to get a shot away. 

Oooooft, that looks like a sore one for Lewandowski as Fali trods on his foot. Nothing given by the ref though (no sniggering please...)

Early possession for Barcelona, as you'd expect. De Jong playing the deeper midfield role for Barcelona with Roberto playing slightly higher up alongside Gavi. 

Cádiz get us underway!

We have lift off!

A minute's silence

A minute's silence for Marcos Alonso Senior, the father of Marcos Alonso Junior, on the bench for Barcelona tonight. 

Cádiz team to play Barcelona

A 4-2-3-1 for Cádiz, by the looks of things. Can they extend their unbeaten run at Camp Nou?

Barcelona team to play Cádiz

Rare(ish) starts for Eric García and Sergi Roberto for a much-changed Barcelona team. 

Kickoff imminent!

A little reminder that as well as Pedri, Barcelona are also without Ousmane Dembélé (injured) and Ronald Araújo (suspended). The big Uruguayan has been superb this season. 

Cádiz unbeaten in two visits to Camp Nou!

Camp Nou holds no fears for Cádiz! You might remember that they won at Camp Nou last season...and held Barça to a goalless draw the season before. 

You get the feeling that that was Barça then, this is Barça now. But the visitors will taken confidence from that, no doubt. 

Can Rober Lewandowski get back amongst the Barcelona goals?

The Pole started the season on fire but the goals have dried up a bit of late. Still, 14 in 19 LaLiga games isn't too shabby. Will he get back amongst the goals against Cádiz?

Cádiz hovering just above the relegation zone

Cádiz have got lost in all the noise surrounding Barcelona this week but you can't have a soccer game with only one team. It takes two to tango, as they say. The Andalusians have been up and down for most of the season but back-to-back home wins over Mallorca and Girona has pulled them out of the relegation zone. They currently have a two-point cushion over the bottom three and an unlikely win here would move them up to 12th in the table. 

Barcelona on a long unbeaten streak

As you might expect from a team that's five points clear at the top of the league - and you'd expect them to be eight ahead in a couple of hours' time - they've been on a pretty good run of form of late. Is that an understatement? Probably. Barça are unbeaten in their last 17 matches in all competitions, with their last defeat coming at the hands of Bayern Munich in the Champions League in October. 

Incredibly, they've conceded only one goal at home in LaLiga this season - in a 1-1 draw against city rivals Espanyol. 

BARCELONA

How many games will Pedri miss through injury? Which ones?

It's not an exaggeration to say that Pedri has become one of Barcelona's most important players. Xavi now has a fairly big problem to contend with as the young midfielder is set for a spell out of action with a thigh injury. 

Pedri has been ruled out for "three to four weeks" which back in the day might have meant three of four games. Not now. He's set to miss a whole host of matches, including some big ones in the Europa League and the Copa del Rey. But there might be some good news about when he could be back. 

LALIGA SANTANDER

What did Barcelona coach Xavi Hernández say about ‘Barçagate’?

Finally, for now, current head coach Xavi Hernández. I'm going to bring these back round to the game with this one, as he had little to say on 'Barçagate' in his post-match press conference, which focused mostly on the match. 

Let's just say that both he and the players at the club at the moment are seeing the funny side of it. 

SOCCER

Barçagate is only “the tip of the iceberg” says Lendoiro

Former Deportivo La Coruña president, meanwhile, had rather stronger views on the situation, calling it “the worst news in the history of Spanish football”.

"When the exact date of the beginning of the million-dollar professional relationship between Enríquez Negreira and Barcelona is known, there will be many clubs and fans, Deportivo and myself the first, who will remember certain incidents or those games against Barça, which we all have in memory, in which we had complained extremely harshly about the referee on duty. Back then, it was almost ‘accepted’ that ‘referees always help the great clubs."

Deportivo were one of Barcelona main rivals in the 1990s and early 2000s. 

LALIGA SANTANDER

What ex-Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde said about the Barçagate scandal

Former Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde did what you might've expected Barcelona to do; he said he knew nothing about the reports. Not that he would've been in trouble in any case, but it does seem strange that the club were paying for a "service" that their manager knew nothing about. 

"I don’t remember, it’s something common: the statistics of the referee that you get for each game... some evaluation that they make for us, in the last few games how things have gone for us, if they give out more cards, reports that reach Aspiazu (his assistant). At Barcelona, I didn’t even look at them, I didn’t even know they existed”.

More from Valverde here. 

BARÇAGATE

Every word Josep Bartomeu said to ABC: “I cut off Negreira’s tap; Laporta quadrupled it”

“It seems that with this service we were asking for more penalties in our favour, or that we wanted to condition the referees’ decisions, and that’s not the case. This gentleman had zero power among the referees.”

“I didn’t know who Javier Enríquez was until one day he was introduced to me in the box at the Camp Nou, but I didn’t know he was the son of the vice president of the CTA. It was 2015 and they only told me that he was the person who made the reports, I greeted him and told him that the managers are very happy with his work. And that’s it”.

On Thursday, Bartomeu gave a lengthy interview with Spanish newspaper ABC in which he talked about 'Barçagate' at length. Here's every word of it.  

Barçagate: a summary

Before the game gets going, I don’t think we can avoid touching on this. Here’s a little summary.

Unless you’ve been living…Goodness knows where in the last few days, you’ll know that ‘Barçagate’ is a now a thing. On Wednesday, it was revealed that Barcelona had paid a company owned by the former vice president of the Spanish Soccer Federation’s Referees Committee almost €7 million between 2001 and 2018 to provide them with “reports” on match officials that were going to take charge their upcoming matches and to ensure “they were treated neutrally by referees.”

Barcelona have admitted that was the case but say that they haven’t done anything out of the ordinary and it doesn’t seem as if any punishment will be coming their way, with LaLiga president Javier Tebas claiming that his organisation can’t hand out any sporting sanctions for such behaviour. Investigations have confirmed that a second company, owned by former Barcelona director Josep Contreras, who died in 2022, was involved in the case but it seems as if there is no way to prove that Barça have actually done anything wrong.

Ex-president Josep María Bartomeu, who stopped the payments in 2018 said the club had “nothing to hide” and had done nothing illegal, although he did have doubts over whether it was “morally correct”.

As you can imagine, plenty of people have had their say...

Cádiz team to play Barcelona

Of course, the very second I posted that there was no news on the Cádiz team yet, the Cádiz team was announced. 

Ledesma; Carcelén, Hernández, Fali, Arzamendia; Escalante, Alcaraz; Bongonda, Alex, Ocampo; Martí. 

A video to announce the team...do these social media managers not think of live bloggers?!

Cádiz team news...incoming!

No news on the Cádiz line-up just yet but if you want to see just how many pairs of boots professional soccer players have, this is the video for you!

Barcelona team to play Cádiz

Here's the Barcelona side to take on Cádiz:

Ter Stegen; Koundé, García, Christensen, Balde; Roberto, de Jong, Gavi; Ferran, Lewandowski, Fati. 

Rests for Alba and Raphinha. Busquets back on the bench. No Pedri due to injury.  

LALIGA

Barcelona vs Cádiz: Times, how to watch on TV, stream online | LaLiga

Of course, you may be looking for a way to watch the game, in which case, you are bang in luck. If you’re watching from the United States, there is a way and this is it!

You can also watch Barcelona vs Cádiz live stream on fuboTV (free trial available)

What time does Barcelona vs Cádiz kick off?

Sunday’s clash gets underway at 9:00 pm local time in Spain, that’s 3:00 p.m. ET and 12:00 p.m. PT. What better way to spend your lunch/post-lunch time than by watching some LaLiga soccer? Over the course of the next hour or so, I’ll be bringing you build-up, team news and plenty, plenty more.

Hello and welcome to Barcelona vs Cádiz!

What a week it’s been for Barcelona! We’ll get into all of that in a moment or two but the Catalans have the chance to end it on a high and where they began it: eight points clear at the top of LaLiga.

Thanks for joining me (Roddy) for Barça’s home clash against Cádiz, who have given them rather more trouble than you would’ve thought in recent times.