MADRID (AP) — With two goals in less than 10 minutes, Lamine Yamal led Barcelona to its fifth straight victory at the start of the Spanish league season.
The teenager's double, plus second-half goals by Dani Olmo and Pedri, gave Barcelona a commanding 4-1 win at Catalan rival Girona on Sunday, keeping its lead over Real Madrid at four points.
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Barcelona's Lamine Yamal, centre, celebrates with his teammates after scoring his side's second goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Girona and Barcelona at the Montilivi stadium in Girona, Spain, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Lamine Yamal, right, celebrates with his teammates after scoring his side's second goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Girona and Barcelona at the Montilivi stadium in Girona, Spain, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Lamine Yamal, right, celebrates with his teammate Marc Casado after scoring his side's second goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Girona and Barcelona at the Montilivi stadium in Girona, Spain, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Lamine Yamal, centre, celebrates with his teammates after scoring his side's opening goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Girona and Barcelona at the Montilivi stadium in Girona, Spain, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Lamine Yamal, second left, celebrates with his teammates after scoring his side's opening goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Girona and Barcelona at the Montilivi stadium in Girona, Spain, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Lamine Yamal, right, celebrates with his teammate after scoring his side's opening goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Girona and Barcelona at the Montilivi stadium in Girona, Spain, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Lamine Yamal, covered by his teammates, celebrates after scoring his side's opening goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Girona and Barcelona at the Montilivi stadium in Girona, Spain, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Lamine Yamal, centre, scores his side's opening goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Girona and Barcelona at the Montilivi stadium in Girona, Spain, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Madrid won at Real Sociedad on Saturday with goals from Kylian Mbappé and Vinícius Júnior. Villarreal was the other team four points back after winning 2-1 at Mallorca on Saturday.
Yamal's goals on Sunday were his second and third of the season. The 17-year-old Spain international opened the scoring after stealing the ball from a defender and sending a close-range shot into the net in the 30th minute. He scored again in the 37th after picking up a loose ball inside the area.
Olmo's third goal since joining Barcelona this season came from a tight angle in the 47th, and Pedri sealed the easy victory with a goal from inside the area in the 64th.
Cristhian Stuani scored Girona's lone goal in the 80th.
The hosts were initially awarded a penalty kick for a handball inside the area just before halftime, with Barcelona leading 2-0, but the call was reversed by video review.
Barcelona played with 10 men from the 87th after Ferran Torres was sent off for a hard foul on an opponent.
Girona, a surprise third-place finisher last season, won both league games against Barcelona last season.
Earlier Sunday, Celta Vigo beat Valladolid 3-1 at home for its first win after two consecutive losses. It was the fourth straight game without a win for Valladolid after it opened with a victory at Espanyol. It lost three of its next four games.
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Barcelona's Lamine Yamal, centre, celebrates with his teammates after scoring his side's second goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Girona and Barcelona at the Montilivi stadium in Girona, Spain, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Lamine Yamal, right, celebrates with his teammates after scoring his side's second goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Girona and Barcelona at the Montilivi stadium in Girona, Spain, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Lamine Yamal, right, celebrates with his teammate Marc Casado after scoring his side's second goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Girona and Barcelona at the Montilivi stadium in Girona, Spain, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Lamine Yamal, centre, celebrates with his teammates after scoring his side's opening goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Girona and Barcelona at the Montilivi stadium in Girona, Spain, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Lamine Yamal, second left, celebrates with his teammates after scoring his side's opening goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Girona and Barcelona at the Montilivi stadium in Girona, Spain, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Lamine Yamal, right, celebrates with his teammate after scoring his side's opening goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Girona and Barcelona at the Montilivi stadium in Girona, Spain, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Lamine Yamal, covered by his teammates, celebrates after scoring his side's opening goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Girona and Barcelona at the Montilivi stadium in Girona, Spain, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
Barcelona's Lamine Yamal, centre, scores his side's opening goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Girona and Barcelona at the Montilivi stadium in Girona, Spain, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis is suffering from a cold and will deliver his Sunday blessing from indoors, the Vatican said, announcing the precautions ahead of a busy Christmas period and launch of the Holy Year that will sorely test Francis' stamina and health.
The Vatican cited the cold temperatures outside and Francis' strenuous week ahead, after a wheezing and congested-sounding pope delivered his annual Christmas greeting to Vatican bureaucrats earlier Saturday.
Francis, who turned 88 this past week, on Tuesday is due to inaugurate his big Holy Year and preside over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebrations in St. Peter's Basilica. On Thursday, he is scheduled to travel to Rome's main prison to inaugurate the Jubilee there.
Francis has long suffered bouts of bronchitis, especially in winter. In 2023, he ended up the hospital to receive intravenous antibiotics. He had part of one lung removed as a young man and frequently seems out of breath, especially after walking or exerting himself.
He took several minutes to catch his breath on Saturday, when he delivered his annual Christmas greetings to Vatican bureaucrats and lay employees. Once again, he used the occasion to admonish the backstabbing and gossiping among his closest collaborators and urge them instead to speak well of one another.
“A church community lives in joyful and fraternal harmony to the extent that its members walk in the life of humility, renouncing evil thinking and speaking ill of others,” Francis said. “Gossip is an evil that destroys social life, sickens people’s hearts and leads to nothing. The people say it very well: Gossip is zero.”
“Beware of this,” he added.
By now Francis’ annual Christmas address to the priests, bishops and cardinals who work in the Vatican Curia has become a lesson in humility -– and humilitation -- as Francis offers a public dressing down of some of the sins in the workplace at the headquarters of the Catholic Church.
In the most biting edition, in 2014, Francis listed the “15 ailments of the Curia,” in which he accused the prelates of using their Vatican careers to grab power and wealth. He accused them of living “hypocritical” double lives and forgetting — due to “spiritual Alzheimer’s” — that they’re supposed to be joyful men of God.
In 2022, Francis warned them that the devil lurks among them, saying it is an “elegant demon” that works in people who have a rigid, holier-than-thou way of living the Catholic faith.
This year, Francis revisited a theme he has often warned about: gossiping and speaking ill of people behind their backs. It was a reference to the sometimes toxic atmosphere in closed environments such as the Vatican or workplaces where office gossip and criticism circulate but are rarely aired in public.
Francis has long welcomed frank and open debates and even has welcomed criticism of his own work. But he has urged critics to tell it to his face, and not behind his back.
Francis opened his address Saturday with a reminder of the devastation of the war in Gaza, where he said even his patriarch had been unable to enter due to Israeli bombing.
"Yesterday children have been bombed. This is cruelty, this is not war," he said.
The annual appointment kicks off Francis’ busy Christmas schedule, this year made even more strenuous because of the start of the Vatican’s Holy Year on Christmas Eve. The Jubilee is expected to bring some 32 million pilgrims to Rome over 2025, and Francis has a dizzying calendar of events to minister to them.
After addressing the Vatican prelates, Francis issued a less critical address to the Vatican’s lay employees who gathered in the city state's main audience hall along with their families. Francis thanked them for their service and urged them to make sure they take time to play with their children and visit grandparents.
“If you have any particular problems, tell your bosses, we want to resolve them,” he added at the end. “You do this with dialogue, not by keeping quiet. Together we’ll try to resolve the difficulties.”
It was an apparent reference to reports of growing unease within the Vatican workforce that has been called out by the Association of Vatican Lay Employees, the closest thing the Vatican has to a labor union. The association has in recent months voiced alarm about the health of the Vatican pension system and fears of even more cost-cutting, and demanded the Vatican leadership listen to workers’ concerns.
Earlier this year 49 employees of the Vatican Museums — the Holy See's main source of revenue — filed a class-action lawsuit in the Vatican tribunal complaining about labor woes, overtime and working conditions.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Pope Francis arrives to exchange season greetings with Vatican employees, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Francis exchanges season greetings with Vatican employees, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Francis exchanges the season's greetings with Vatican employees, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Francis arrives to exchange the season's greetings with Vatican employees, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Francis exchanges the season's greetings with Vatican employees, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Francis delivers his blessing as he exchanges season greetings with Vatican employees, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Francis exchanges the season's greetings with Vatican employees, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Francis meets with Italian pilgrims participating in the Camino de Santiago, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Francis tries a skullcap received by faithful during the weekly general audience at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
