Barcelona lose more ground in title race as Valencia claim draw at Mestalla
Los Ches began aggressively and created a chance inside the opening two minutes when Roman Yaremchuk’s shot was pushed to safety by Iñaki Peña. There was plenty of early encouragement for the Valencia fans packed inside the Mestalla, as Cristhian Mosquera saw his diving header saved and Frenkie de Jong made a fine block to deny Hugo Duro.
Xavi’s men were looking to quell the fervent crowd, and Robert Lewandowski took matters into his own hands with a stinging effort that was parried away by Giorgi Mamardashvili.
Barça were growing into the contest, almost breaking the deadlock in emphatic fashion when Lewandowski’s excellent acrobatic strike was pushed away by Mamardashvili. João Félix then teed up Pedri, who could not find the target from just outside the box, with Valencia’s early intensity starting to drop heading towards HT.
The frenetic nature of this pulsating contest continued after the break, and neither Diego López nor İlkay Gündoğan could find the target with their respective efforts.
However, the champions opened the scoring in the 55th minute thanks to João Félix. Frenkie de Jong lofted a sublime pass into Raphinha, and the Brazilian’s cross was tapped in from point-blank range by the Portugal international.
The celebrations, or lack thereof, from both Raphinha and Félix was quite bizarre, as both players stood motionless facing the stands before eventually congratulating each other. The Brazilian has now assisted three of Barça's last four LaLiga goals - as many as in the club’s previous 30 goals in the competition.
That joy lasted just over 15 minutes though, as Guillamón rifled in a superb strike from the edge of the box after the visitors failed to deal with Fran Pérez’s deep ball into the box. Barça were hoping for a reprieve from the VAR, but Pérez was judged to be in an onside position before delivering his cross.
It was almost impossible to take your eyes off this absorbing contest, and Ferran Torres escaped his marker’s attention to ghost into the box from another excellent De Jong pass, but Mamardashvili was on hand to make a crucial stop.
Los Ches were doing everything to hold onto a point, as Yarek Gąsiorowski made a brilliant clearance off the line to thwart Raphinha.
The game would end all square to leave Xavi’s side six points adrift of league leaders Girona, having played a game more than their Catalan rivals.
Meanwhile, this result may have extended Valencia’s winless league run to five matches, but will feel like a point gained after Rubén Baraja avoided losing three consecutive LaLiga fixtures for the first time during his tenure.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Frenkie de Jong (Barcelona)