The problems at Spanish champions FC Barcelona are increasingly becoming a crisis.
Three days after their cup knockout, the Catalans remained winless for the third time in the last five competitive games in the 3:5 (0:1) defeat against Villarreal FC despite a goal from national team captain Ilkay Gündogan.
At the same time, Barca continued to lose ground to the new league leaders Real Madrid, who temporarily left the previous leaders FC Girona behind with a 2-1 (0-0) win at UD Las Palmas.
However, the surprise team can return to the top on Sunday with a success against relegation candidate Celta Vigo.
Against Villarreal, Barcelona completely failed to make amends for their quarter-final exit in the Copa del Rey last Wednesday (2:4 aet at Athletic Bilbao).
After their 3-2 lead thanks to a successful comeback, which Gündogan initiated after a 0-2 deficit with his fourth goal of the season (60th), the hosts fell apart in the final phase.
FC Barcelona are already ten points behind Real Madrid
Gündogan and Co. are now ten points behind Real. A successful defense of the title therefore hardly seems realistic anymore.
Goncalo Guedes (84th), ex-Leipzig player Alexander Sörloth (90th + 9th) and Jose Morales (90th + 12th) sealed the Blaugrana’s second home defeat of the current season.
In contrast to their arch-rivals, Madrid could not miss their next victory after an equally successful comeback. After the hosts took the lead through Javier Munoz (53′), Vinicius Junior (65′) and Aurelien Tchouameni (84′) turned the game around for Real.