February saw the domestic action continue into the new year as most European leagues were now back from any winter break and making up for their missed weeks with non-stop action. We also saw the return of European football late in the month with the knockout round 1st legs in the Champions League taking place this month.

This months NextGoalWinner player of the month winner comes from La Liga where despite having a fairly slow campaign by his own and Barcelona’s standards, their talismanic striker managed to play a vital role in an important month to keep Barcelona’s season on track from complete mediocrity.

Robert Lewandowski managed a strong scoring return in January which continued on into 2024’s second month. With 5 games across the league and Champions League, Lewandowski managed 5 goals in his 5 games, playing full 90s in each and being a key part of earning some important results in the month.

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Match By Match

February 3rd: Deportivo Alaves 1-3 Barcelona – Carrying on his strong start to 2024 after bagging 4 goals and 1 assist in January, Lewandowski helped in claiming a comfortable victory against Deportivo Alaves in the opening game of the month. With the Polish striker getting the game underway with the first goal in the 22nd minute, the goals flowed in the second half as the game ended 3-1 despite Barcelona going down to 10 men in the 72nd minute. In this game, Lewandowski scored 1, drew the most fouls (4) and had 100% long ball accuracy. In a strong display, despite having the fewest touches of any player to play the full 90 (35), he maintained a solid 8.1/10 FotMob rating to continue his strong run of the new year and help Barcelona to victory.

February 11th: Barcelona 3-3 Granada – With 16 year old Lamine Yamal putting on a show in the second game of the month for Barcelona, Lewandowski was the scorer of Barcelona’s second which at the time proved an equaliser at 2-2. With the home team struggling against the struggling Granada team, it’s times like this which has given Barcelona such a tough time this season. Granada scored their 3rd just minutes after Lewandowski’s equaliser which then meant the youngster Lamal’s second on the night late in the game was a goal to save Barcelona’s blushes at 3-3 rather than a full celebration of the exciting talent developing alongside the experienced striker in Lewandowski. With Lewandowski, he continued his scoring run, and strong performances with an 8.0/10 rating. Again he was the player with the fewest touches for anyone playing the full 90 (33), but he had been clinical with his chances. Although not the result Barcelona wanted or needed, and playing second fiddle to the young talent stepping up in Yamal, Lewandowski still put on a solid shift to help his side as much as possible.

February 17th: Celta Vigo 1-2 Barcelona – With Lewandowski opening the scoring in this one, Celta Vigo equalised shortly after giving Barcelona another sense of inevitable disappointment with a tough league result as they went into a week of Champions League knockout football. However, their talismanic striker stepped up very late on with a 97th minute penalty to save all 3 points, get Barcelona back to winning ways and heading into their Champions League tie with Napoli feeling more confident. With his standout showing of the month, Lewandowski achieved his highest FotMob rating for the month (8.8/10), and along with his 2 goals, he had again been clinical with having the fewest touches (35).

February 24th: Barcelona 4-0 Getafe – After a tough away trip to Napoli midweek, where Lewandowski managed to bag another goal in the 1-1 first leg draw, Barcelona returned to domestic action with a confident and secure victory over Getafe. Lewandowski failed to get on the scoresheet for the first time this month (including Champions League), as he was limited despite the 4 goal winning margin. Having his lowest rated outing of the month, he was still involved on several occasions, creating 1 big chance, having 100% shot accuracy and 100% tackles won. He ended the month with 5 goals across 5 games including domestic and European action, providing crucial in their win against Celta Vigo, the draw with Granada and most importantly the draw with Napoli in the Champions League.