Barcelona drove the Camp Nou mad for all the wrong reasons on the night with their performance against a Valencia side set up to defend. The Catalan side started the game in disastrous fashion as Ivan Rakitic ended up pushing the ball into his own net to open the scoring.
Valencia got into the driver’s seat on the stroke of half-time as Santi Mina, playing as the lone forward on the night ran onto a beautiful through pass by Dani Parejo and gladly slotted past a hapless Claudio Bravo to double their lead.
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Lionel Messi finally broke the goal scoring jinx on his back as he scored one back for the Catalan side, a goal which eventually proved to be a consolation as Barcelona lost 2-1 on the night.
Barcelona
Claudio Bravo – 6/10
Claudio Bravo worked hard on the night, making a number of saves but was somewhat helpless for both goals.
Sergi Roberto – 6/10
Sergi Roberto offered great energy going forward continually trouble Guilherme Siqueira but defensively was lax as he allowed Santi Mina a world of space between himself and the centre-back for the second goal. A very average defensive performance overall from the young star.
Gerard Pique – 6/10
Gerard Pique was ball watching as Parejo found Mina with a pass that went inches past him. He should’ve done better. Apart from the goals, he seemed solid and missed a fantastic chance to equalise at the death.
Javier Mascherano – 5/10
Javier Mascherano was skinned by Santi Mina for the goal. He didn’t seem all that assured in defence and was poor on the night.
Jordi Alba – 6/10
Jordi Alba was making some great forays forward but some terrible decisions on the pass or shoot once in the final third. He could be accused of wasting some great opportunities. Alba did, however, assist the Barcelona goal.
Ivan Rakitic – 5/10
Ivan Rakitic was completely clueless on the night as he let in the opening goal off his own foot and then spent the entire match trying too hard to make up for it eventually failing to do so.
Sergio Busquets – 5/10
Sergio Busquets was not awfully at fault for anything but he could’ve done better considering the high standards he otherwise sets.
Andres Iniesta – 5/10
Andres Iniesta seemed anonymous for large parts and when he did have the ball, the Spaniard was hardly in a position to do anything devastating with it.
Lionel Messi – 7/10
Lionel Messi must be a relieved man. He finally did score, albeit under not so happy circumstances. Leo is still far from his best but his effort cannot be faulted for the result.
Neymar – 5/10
Neymar did not manage to do anything of note and was in fact rather wasteful of opportunities often losing the ball, drawing a few fouls and yelling at the referees.
Luis Suarez – 5/10
Luis Suarez worked hard for his team but failed to make any impact on the game and was kept unusually quiet on the night.
Substitutes
None
Valencia
Diego Alves – 8/10
Save after save after save from the Spanish keeper saw Valencia ride their luck and his ability. The stopper kept Barcelona at bay and eventually won them the match.
Antonio Barragan – 7/10
Antonio Barragan was immense on the night as he did well to deal with Neymar for a long time. He put in some very important interceptions in the game.
Shkodran Mustafi – 9/10
Shkodran Mustafi was immense on the night and may have attracted some bigger clubs across Europe with his display against Barcelona.
Aymen Abdennour – 8/10
After a nervy beginning to the game, Aymen Abdennour was solid at the back pulling off some brilliant blocks to support partner Mustafi.
Guilherme Sequeira – 6/10
Guilherme Siqueira was decent on the night but was constantly skinned by Lionel Messi all evening. He offered very little going forward.
Andre Gomes – 8/10
Andre Gomes has some of the biggest clubs in Europe looking at him and they won’t be disappointed by this performance. A fine defensive display from the midfielder on a night when it was most needed.
Enzo Perez – 8/10
Enzo Perez was a part of the midfield five that completely shut the Barcelona midfield off. He was crucial to the Valencia defensive effort.
Javi Fuego – 8/10
Javi Fuego was like a terrier, running all across the pitch making up for a lot of Valencia’s inability to match Barcelona’s playing ability with sheer grit and determination.
Daniel Parejo– 9/10
Daniel Parejo put in a defensive shift any manager would be proud off but it was his work on the ball that saw Valencia threaten. He got the assist for the goal scored by Mina
Rodrigo – 8/10
Rodrigo put up immensely good shift despite having to work more on the defensive end than the attacking one.
Santi Mina– 8/10
Santi Mina put in a performance that will have made a few people look up and take notice. He took his chance majestically to score Valencia’s second goal of the night. He was substituted on the 60-minute mark.
Substitutes
Paco Alcacer – 5/10
Paco Alcacer came on for Mina and missed a glorious chance to make it 3-1 on the night and could’ve done much better on several occasions.
Joao Cancelo – 6/10
Cancelo was brought on to offer extra protection on the right and was decent for his team on the night.
Jose Luis Gaya – N/A
