Madrid, Feb 2 (IANS) Valencia caused the upset of the day when they fought back from 0-1 down against Barcelona to upset the La Liga leaders 3-2 in Camp Nou.
Barcelona had taken the lead after just seven minutes Saturday through Alexis Sanchez and had chances to go further ahead before Dani Parejo equalised after a counter-attack just before halftime, reports Xinhua.
Pablo Piatti put Valencia ahead with a rare header two minutes into the second half before Lionel Messi levelled from the penalty spot.
There were 35 minutes remaining but just before the hour Paco Alcazar scored the decisive goal after a chain of defensive errors from Barcelona, who also ended up with 10-men after Jordi Alba was sent off for seeing his second yellow card.
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“I can’t explain how it happened. We had a positive first half-hour and conceded the equalising goal at a bad time. Then after they scored the second goal, we rushed into everything,” Barcelona coach Tata Martino said.
Barcelona will surrender their lead in La Liga Sunday if Atletico Madrid draw at home to Real Sociedad or Real Madrid win their away game in Bilbao.
Elsewhere, the Levante and Rayo Vallecano game followed by Getafe and Valladolid match ended in 0-0 draws. It was down to Malaga and Sevilla to salvage things and the Andalusia derby with no love lost between them didn’t disappoint.
Malaga opened the scoring in the first half through a Duda penalty but the second period saw Sevilla hit back twice and take the lead with goals from Carlos Bacca and Federico Fazio.
Samuel Sanchez hammered an equaliser for Malaga with 12 minutes left to play and Duda’s second of the night ensured the points stayed in Malaga to aid the club’s battle to avoid relegation.
