Lewandowski scores winner as Barcelona beats Alaves to move closer to the top in Spanish league

MADRID — Robert Lewandowski scored a second-half winner as Barcelona beat Alaves 1-0 on Sunday to move within four points of rival Real Madrid at the top of the Spanish league.

Madrid lost 1-0 at Espanyol on Saturday after a run of 10 victories in its last 11 matches in all competitions.

Third-placed Barcelona is three points behind second-placed Atletico Madrid, which ended a two-match winless streak in the league with a 2-0 victory against Mallorca on Saturday.

''We knew we had to win this match,'' Lewandowski said. ''We needed the victory. We had lost too many points in the league already.''

It was the fourth goal in as many matches for Lewandowski across all competitions, and his seventh in the last eight games.

The Poland striker scored from close range after a volley by Lamine Yamal from inside the area deflected off a defender.

It was an unusually low-scoring game for Barcelona, which had claimed 14 goals in its last three matches — including a 7-1 rout of Valencia in the league.

''It's not every time that we will be able to score three, four or five goals in a game,'' Lewandowski said. ''We had to be patient and in the end we did what we had to do, which was to score one more goal than our opponent.''

Alaves, which ended with no attempts on target, stayed inside the relegation zone with the loss. It has won only one of its last 11 matches in all competitions.

Head injuries for Gavi and Conechny

Barcelona midfielder Gavi and Alaves forward Tomás Conechny had to be substituted in the first half after a collision of heads while going for the ball about 10 minutes into the match at Montjuic stadium.

Gavi left the field on his own but Conechny was carried off on a stretcher and taken to a local hospital for further tests. There was no immediate update about his condition.

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