Barcelona suffered their fourth defeat of the season at the hands of relegation battlers Real Valladolid. Fausto Rossi took advantage of some deflections in the 17th minute, beating Victor Valdés and scoring the games lone goal. Valladolid move out of the drop zone and could stay there if Almeria lose against Sevilla.
Real Valladolid vs. Barcelona: Final score 1-0, Valladolid stun the Blaugrana
A goal in the 17th minute was enough to give 18th placed Real Valladolid a massive upset over Barcelona.
Denis Doyle
Don’t be fooled, though. Barca were extremely poor and Valladolid played a fantastic match getting a thoroughly deserved victory.
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After nearly ten minutes of balanced play in which Real Valladolid wasted a couple set piece opportunities, Barcelona nearly took the lead when Lionel Messi did some of his usual magical stuff. The Argentine attacker made a quick run across the top of the Valladolid box before firing a rising shot that forced Diego Mariño to make a spectacular one-handed save to keep the match scoreless.
Valladolid didn’t waste a chance in the 17th minute though and took the lead. Twice the ball took deflections off Barcelona defenders before ending up on the foot of Fausto Rossi in a small pocket of space in the Barca 18-yard-box. Rossi never hesitated, blasting a low shot through the traffic in front of Victor Valdés to give the home side a 1-0 lead.
Barca clearly got a talking to at the break and looked much better early in the second half as they took back control of the midfield and started to threaten the Valladolid goal with greater regularity.
Neymar appeared set to even the match in the 57th minute after Cesc Fàbregas and Messi conspired to somehow get the ball across the box to the Brazilian, all alone on the right side of the area. The ball took a bit of a bounce on the poor pitch and Neymar got underneath the ball, lifting it over the crossbar.
Valladolid just missed a second goal in the 84th minute after countering a failed Messi free kick. Valdet Rama pulled the ball back across the Barca box to Óscar González but his toe poke went over the crossbar, missing by the slimmest of margins.
Barcelona's loss could move them down to third place by the end of the round depending on what Atlético Madrid does later on Saturday.
Real Valladolid: Mariño, Rukavina, Rueda, Mitrovic, Peña, Valiente (Sastre 59’), Rossi, Álvaro Rubio, Bergdich (Rama 72’), Guerra, Manucho (González 65’)
Goals: Rossi (17’)
Barcelona: Valdés, Dani Alves, Piqué (Roberto 72'), Mascherano, Adriano, Busquets, Xavi, Fàbregas (Sánchez 61'), Pedro, Messi, Neymar (Tello 73')
Goals: None
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