[Source: Reuters]

Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal struck twice in the first half to help deliver a commanding 4-1 win at Girona this morning that extended their perfect start to the LaLiga season with a fifth consecutive win.

Yamal gave Barca a two-goal lead with strikes in the 30th and 37th minutes while Dani Olmo extended their advantage right after the break with a first-time effort from close range.

Pedri scored the fourth with a tap-in in the 64th minute while Girona substitute Cristhian Stuani netted a consolation goal in the 80th, six minutes before Barca were reduced to 10 men when forward Ferran Torres was given a straight red card for a nasty studs-up challenge on Yaser Asprilla.

Hansi Flick’s Barcelona top the LaLiga standings with 15 points, four ahead of Real Madrid and Villarreal. Girona are seventh on seven points.

“It was clear for us that we had to start the season well,” Pedri told Movistar Plus.

“Coach Flick insisted with us about that in the close season, that from the very first moment we had to push hard because that’s how you win leagues, distancing ourselves from our rivals from the start.”

It was another dominant performance by Flick’s impressive Barcelona who outplayed Girona throughout the match and could have won by a wider margin.

Girona looked overwhelmed in the face of Barca’s relentless high-press which caused the home side’s defenders to make several mistakes, gifting Barca opportunities.

David Lopez made a schoolboy error when he was pressured by teenager Yamal who stole the ball cleanly on the edge of the box before firing an unstoppable strike past the goalkeeper.

Barca kept pushing and Yamal extended their lead, slotting home a rebound from a free kick just inside the post.

Barca were commanding and working like a well oiled machine, frustrating almost every Girona effort to counter and not allowing the opposition to break the lines with forward passes into pockets of space.

They extended their lead a minute after the break when Jules Kounde delivered a long pass through that Olmo took in his stride, bursting into the box before unleashing a bullet strike past the goalkeeper.

Girona goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga made a string of saves to deny efforts by Robert Lewandowski and Yamal but there was little he could do to stop Pedri from scoring the fourth.

Substitute Marc Casado fired a pass through the middle that found Pedri unmarked as he ghosted behind the defence before running past the goalkeeper and tapping the ball into the empty net.

Stuani’s close-range finish and Torres’s red-card didn’t change the script and Barca could have scored another with Casado missing a sitter in added time.

Barca will now turn their attention to the Champions League as they prepare to visit Monaco on Thursday.