Barça's win over Málaga, by the numbers

Thomas Vermaelen scores match-winner and puts in an assured performance, completing 61 of his 65 attempted passes

Thomas Vermaelen played a pivotal role in FC Barcelona’s 1-0 win over Málaga, scoring the only goal of the game on 73 minutes. Here is a collection of facts and figures from Saturday’s hard-fought victory.

• The Belgian defender recovered possession more times than any other player (17), ahead of Málaga full-back Rosales (11) and teammate Sergio Busquets (10).

• Vermaelen became the 19th player to score under Luis Enrique since the manager took over at the start of the 2014/15 season. Of the current squad, only Dani Alves, Douglas, Javier Mascherano and the three goalkeepers have yet to get off the mark, as well as newboys Aleix Vidal and Arda Turan.

• The last Belgian to score for Barça was Fernand Goyvaerts back in December 1964.

• Vermaelen’s strike ended Barça's run of 282 minutes without a goal against the Andalusian club.

• The win over Málaga means that Luis Enrique has now recorded at least one victory over each La Liga club as Barça boss.

• Playing in his new right-back role, Sergi Roberto made six interceptions and completed 50 of his 56 attempted passes.

• It is the first time in La Liga history that Barça have started with back-to-back 1-0 victories.

• Claudio Bravo, Jordi Alba, Andrés Iniesta, Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez and Mascherano are the only players to have played every minute of the first two matches.

• Saturday's match was the first of Barça's five games this campaign where no blaugrana player received a card.

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