Barcelona 1-2 Valencia: Defeat blows La Liga title race wide open

By Pete Hall

Monday 18 April 2016 06:45, UK

Barcelona slipped to a third successive league defeat as Valencia blew the La Liga title race wide open with a 2-1 win at the Camp Nou.

Barcelona endured a nightmare first-half, with Ivan Rakitic diverting the ball past the despairing dive of Claudio Bravo after 26 minutes to give Valencia the lead, before Santi Mina stunned the Camp Nou with a second in first-half stoppage time.

Lionel Messi netted his 500th goal for club and country to get Barca back in the match just after the hour mark, but they couldn't find an equaliser for all their possession.

Just over a month ago Barca had a nine point lead at the top of the table, but now Atletico Madrid are level on points with Barca and, remarkably, Real Madrid are now just one point behind, having seemed down and out. Valencia are up to 12th after their second win in a row.

Barcelona missed a host of chances early on, as Diego Alves once again excelled in the Valencia goal. Messi was the first to be denied by Alves, who beat away his effort after being picked out by Luis Suarez.

Then, as Neymar looked odds-on to score, his looped header was palmed away by Alves as he fell backwards.

It was looking ominous for Los Che, but this is a Barcelona side who are not the force prior to their El Clasico defeat, and soon enough the shockwaves were reverberating around Catalonia.

Guilherme Siqueira, on-loan at Valencia from title rivals Atletico, saw his attempted cross diverted goalwards by Rakitic, somewhat against the run of play, and Bravo could not keep it out - stunning the Camp Nou into silence.

The frustration was pouring out of Barca, with Luis Suarez booked for protesting. Then, it got much worse. Dani Parejo was allowed space on the edge of the box to slide a sublime pass into the path of the onrushing Mina, who curled the ball past Bravo to double his side's lead.

Barca had plenty of possession after the break, but they looked completely off the pace, and were struggling to break down a well organised Valencia.

However, Messi did get his side back in it just after the hour mark. Jordi Alba did well to slide the ball across for the Argentine to tap home to end a personal lean spell of 515 minutes in front of goal.

Neymar, who had a quiet evening in truth, turned and drilled an effort at goal, but he had to do better than that to beat Alves in this mood.

Alves produced his best save of the night in the 75th minute to deny Rakitic, springing to his right to get a strong hand to the goalbound strike.

Valencia actually had several chances to make sure of the victory, with Paco Alcacer missing a glorious opportunity late on, before Gerard Pique was offered the chance to be the hero, but scuffed his effort wide from point-blank range.

Valencia's rejuvenation rolls on, but Barca's capitulation has taken a staggering further twist.