Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski propped up with a goal in the added time of the contest to secure all three points against Valencia at the Mestalla Stadium. Xavi’s side are momentarily on top of the LaLiga table with Real Madrid, who are set to take on Girona later on Sunday.
It was a free-flowing game of end-to-end action between two managers who prefer attacking football – Xavi on Barcelona’s dugout and Gennaro Gattuso on Valencia’s. However, it was the visitors who dominated much of the action and threatened the goal on multiple occasions in the first half.
Valencia keeper Giorgi Mamardashvili was called into action to deny Ansu Fati, while Lewandowski’s brilliant header got saved by the post.
The hosts were rocked by an early injury inside 18 minutes on the clock as summer signing Edinson Cavani seemed to be struggling with an ankle injury.
Barcelona, on their part, were also dealt a huge blow as the injury woes to their backline continues to get worse. Eric Garcia became the latest victim, joining Ronald Araujo and Andreas Christensen on the treatment table, and he had to be replaced by Marcos Alonso in the first half.
Valencia’s Samuel Lino thought he had opened the scoring four minutes into the second half, and the Mestalla crowd erupted, but the referee chalked it off following a VAR check as Marcos Andre had blatantly touched the cross with his hand and diverted it into the path of Lino.
Former Valencia winger Ferran Torres had a glorious chance to silence the crowd and put Barcelona ahead, but he failed to make a proper contact from a few metres out within the last 10 minutes of the game.
However, Lewandowski came clutch for Barcelona in La Liga once again and ensured that the Catalans, fresh off the back of another Champions League elimination, would have something to smile about.
“The goal is about quality. Robert is there to make the difference. I thought it might be disallowed for offside with the run we’re on at the moment. But we have to improve. We have to make better decisions,”
Xavi said after the game.
