Barcelona lose to Valencia to blow La Liga title race wide open
Barcelona lose to Valencia to blow La Liga title race wide open
Shell-shocked Barça have 76 points along with Atlético, who knocked the holders out of the Champions League in midweek, and remain top only due to a superior head-to-head record.
Atlético earlier eased to a 3-0 home win over Granada after Fernando Torres grabbed his fourth goal in as many games with Koke and substitute Angel Correa also on the scoresheet.
Real Madrid, whose coach Zinedine Zidane said in February that the title race was over, thrashed Getafe 5-1 away on Saturday and stand just one point behind the leading pair.
An own goal by Barça midfielder Ivan Rakitic put Valencia ahead after 27 minutes at the Camp Nou and Santi Mina added a second just before half-time to stun the Barça supporters.
Lionel Messi scored his 500th career goal to reduce the deficit after 64 minutes but the struggling hosts, who have squandered a nine-point lead, could not find an equaliser.
Despite Barcelona registering a third successive league defeat for the first time since 2003, Luis Enrique remained upbeat about his team’s chances of winning the title. “We’ve got a marvellous challenge, if we win the five games remaining we will be champions,” he said.
“Of course, our credit has run out and we are aware of the challenge. We’re going to approach it like a Barça player always does, with our heads held high.”
Barça humiliated a Valencia side coached by Gary Neville 7-0 in the Copa del Rey in February but had a much tougher time against successor Pako Ayesteran’s side and went behind when Guilherme Siqueira’s cross bounced off Rakitic and beyond Claudio Bravo.
Messi, Luis Suárez and Neymar each had efforts saved by the impressive Diego Alves, but Valencia continued to cause the home side problems on the break.
Santi Mina increased the visiting side’s advantage just before half-time, receiving a pass from Dani Parejo and beating Bravo at the far post with a powerful driven effort.
Messi turned in a low cross from Jordi Alba to end a drought of five games without scoring and net his 500th career goal, but a second proved elusive for the hosts.
Valencia’s Alves produced a spectacular save to deny Rakitic late on and Gerard Piquee agonisingly missed the target at the near post in stoppage time. “We were better than Valencia in every aspect apart from effectiveness. We’ve dropped three points that we could have taken fairly but football is like that,” added Luis Enrique.
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