Raphinha offers victory to FC Barcelona against Valencia

Solid leader in the standings despite the defeat in Almeria, FC Barcelona, ​​​​winners of Real Madrid in the semi-final first leg of the Copa del Rey in midweek, received Valencia CF, penultimate in the championship and two points from the first no -relegation. The opportunity for the Blaugranas to widen the gap a little more with their eternal rival, potentially to ten units while waiting for the White House to move to Real Betis. For its part, the club che, which lost 6 straight matches before beating Real Sociedad at home, absolutely had to win on Catalan soil to give itself some air in the race to maintain.

If the pace of this start to the meeting was quite slow between the 22 players, those led by Xavi Hernandez managed to create some scares for the Valencian defenders. We had to wait the quarter of an hour to witness the opener signed Raphinha, author of a helmet shot on the long ball of Sergio Busquets to surprise Giorgi Mamardashvili (1-0, 15th). Raphinha then Ferran Torres were not far from the break, but the lack of accuracy of the Brazilian (24th) and the parade of the Georgian goalkeeper (32nd) did not allow the FCB to confirm its ascendancy.

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Barça reduced to 10

Served by a long ball from Torres before the break, Marc-André ter Stegen had almost offered a goal ball to Samuel Lino, too imprecise on his shot (39th). On returning from the locker room, the match took a turn in just a few minutes: on a volley from Jules Koundé, Hugo Guillamon countered the ball with his hand. Penalty for FC Barcelona, ​​missed by Torres, hitting the outside right post (55th). The left wood was then found by Ansu Fati on a nice two-man game with Raphinha (56th). In the process, Ronald Araujo, stopping Hugo Duro as the last defender, had to leave his teammates at 10 with a logical red (59th).

The opportunity therefore for the foals of Voro to get at least one point, important to gain confidence and thus hope to keep their place in the elite of Iberian football. But despite the numerical superiority, the Merengots did not worry the rearguard and even left control of the ball to their opponent, a symbol of the lack of confidence of the six-time Spanish champion this season. Final score: 1-0. FC Barcelona wins by the narrowest of margins and thus takes a ten-point lead over its runner-up, Real Madrid, who will play in Seville in prime time this Sunday evening. Valencia does not move from the red zone and continues its bad dynamic in the league.