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Despite Ferran Torres' penalty miss, Barcelona still ran out winners over Valencia to extend their LaLiga lead to 10 points
Barcelona put in an uncertain performance against Valencia at Camp Nou, but still managed to come out with a 1-0 victory that extends their lead at the top of the LaLiga table to 10 points until Real Madrid take on Real Betis later today.
The Catalan Giants had Ronald Araujo sent off having already seen Ferran Torres miss a second-half penalty, but still held on for all three points thanks to Raphinha's early goal.
How it happened
Barcelona entered the game against Valencia looking to build on the Copa del Rey win over Real Madrid after a poor spell that saw them lose to Manchester United in the Europa League and Almeria in LaLiga.
The opening moments showed how much Barcelona wanted to do better than those two fixtures, and the Catalans started the match on the front foot as expected.
Frenkie de Jong tested Giorgi Mamardashvili in the Valencia goal early on, and Sergio Busquets also had a good effort blocked, all inside the first 15 minutes.
The pressure eventually told on Valencia when Busquets found Raphinha with a cross-field pass, and the Brazillian sent a looping header past Mamardashvili to give Barcelona the lead.
It was Raphinha’s first goal in four games, and the forward ended a mini-goal drought that had plagued him since scoring against Manchester United in the first leg of the UEL Round of 16 playoff.
Barcelona stayed on the front foot throughout the first half and had a few more chances to extend their lead but failed to make them count, while Valencia failed to get a single shot on target throughout the first period, despite firing off six shots in the Barcelona goal’s direction.
Barcelona had their biggest chance to extend their lead after only 10 minutes of the restart when Hugo Guillamon was adjudged to have handled the ball in the box and the Blaugrana were handed a penalty.
Ferran Torres, who has been in impressive form recently, stepped up to try and add a second goal for Barcelona, but he was denied by the post after a well-struck penalty.
Things took an even worse turn for Barcelona soon after as star defender Ronald Araujo was sent off following a straight red card for a last-man foul on Valencia’s Hugo Duro to leave the Blaugrana with only 10 men for the last half hour of the match.
After the red card, Barcelona defended their 1-0 lead doggedly, as they did against Real Madrid and managed to escape a really sticky situation to see out the win.
Barcelona move 10 points away from Real Madrid
Barcelona’s hard-fought win bought them three valuable points which see them extend their lead over Real Madrid to 10 points for the time being.
The Catalans inch closer to the LaLiga title with every match, and showed that the game against Real Madrid was not a fluke as the team is ready to do the hard defending when the time calls for it.
Man of the match
Raphinha again proved to be immensely important to Barcelona with the winning goal, but also did some defensive work and created Barcelona’s best chance to score in the first half besides his goal.
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