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Valencia: Barcelona, bruised after Champions League elimination in midweek, snatched a late 1-0 victory at Valencia on Saturday in La Liga, with Robert Lewandowski stretching to transform a 93rd minute winner.
The Polish ahead managed to divert Raphinha’s cross residence on the loss of life to drag Barcelona degree on 31 factors with Actual Madrid on the prime of the desk, earlier than the champions host Girona on Sunday.
It was a hard-fought win — the Catalans misplaced centre-backs Jules Kounde and Eric Garcia to harm, and they are going to be worries for his or her nationwide groups, France and Spain respectively, forward of the Qatar World Cup which begins in underneath three weeks.
Valencia noticed Uruguayan Edinson Cavani go off injured with an ankle drawback too, with the sport billed as a shoot-out between him and fellow veteran marksman Lewandowski, who got here out on prime together with his late objective.
“It was not good soccer, at this time we weren’t impressed,” mentioned Xavi.
“The anxiousness of this week weighed on us, Valencia defended very properly. These are three very important factors.
“I’m comfortable for the win, it was deserved, and every victory is well known, and whenever you don’t win, the alarms sound, it’s regular, this can be a huge membership.”
Gennaro Gattuso mentioned he and Barcelona counterpart Xavi Hernandez performed nearly completely different sports activities of their taking part in days, however their groups had been evenly matched at a feisty Mestalla.
The guests had the higher hand from the beginning, though Valencia’s difficult ahead line precipitated them concern on the again, with Samuel Lino and Justin Kluivert significantly arduous to deal with.
Ansu Fati ought to have opened the scoring when arrange by a wonderfully timed Pedri go, however onrushing Valencia goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili saved the ahead’s tried dink together with his face.
Frenkie de Jong hammered an effort huge from distance, whereas Fati, on a uncommon begin, couldn’t direct a header from Ousmane Dembele’s cross low sufficient to trigger issues.
Valencia thought that they had damaged the impasse early within the second half when Lino slid residence however Marcos Andre hand dealt with a cross into his path and the objective was disallowed.
– Late winner –
Barcelona may have gained the match with 5 minutes remaining however substitute Torres fluffed his strains in entrance of objective, kicking the ball towards his different leg when he solely had the goalkeeper to beat.
Fortunately for him, grasp finisher Lewandowski spared his blushes with a objective when Barcelona wanted it most.
“Whenever you play groups like Barcelona you possibly can’t make any errors,” Gattuso advised DAZN.
“We’ve to proceed, we’ve got to take a look at our mentality, however the workforce is alive. We’ve to talk little and work quite a bit.”
Valencia have gained simply certainly one of their final six matches and are tenth in La Liga.
Earlier Ruben Sobrino bundled residence a dramatic final gasp winner to earn Cadiz a outstanding 3-2 win over Atletico Madrid, piling the distress on the guests in a harrowing week for Diego Simeone’s workforce.
It appeared like Joao Felix had salvaged the Rojiblancos a degree from two objectives down, with a surprising influence off the bench, forcing an personal objective and scoring one other effort himself, stemming the bleeding after their Champions League elimination on Wednesday.
“It’s all studying, you all the time continue learning, there’s no time to not be taught,” mentioned Simeone.
“We’ve to maintain going mentally, it looks like it’s all going to finish tomorrow, and there’s an extended method to go in La Liga, we will get into the Europa League, so let’s have some calm.
“Despite the fact that the luck that you simply all the time want on this recreation is just not favouring us.”
Jorge Sampaoli’s Sevilla, seventeenth, fell to a disappointing 1-0 defeat at residence towards Rayo Vallecano, whereas Almeria beat Celta Vigo 3-1.
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