Barcelona drew 1–1 at Valencia’s home ground.
Xavi had to settle for a draw at Mestalla. PDO
Barcelona arrived in Valencia in the middle of their mini-crisis.
Two consecutive defeats (to Girona and Royal Antwerp) had weakened the head coach Xavi position. As a bad omen, right before the start of the league match, Sevilla announced that they had given the Uruguayan pilot For Diego Alonso sack.
Xavi himself felt his ball swing right at the start of the match, when no less than four players from the away team forgot that the match was already underway.
Valencia’s Ukrainian star Roman Yaremchuk thanked for freedom, and only the goalkeeper Iñaki Peña kept Barcelona in the game with his ghost save.
Fortunately for the guests, Valencia’s game has also been deadlocked. Well over a month had already passed since the bat group’s previous league win, and the longer the opening period progressed, the stronger the away team took command.
Head coach of Valencia Rubén Baraja played alongside Xavi in the national team, and now the friends watched their teams’ performances rather nervously.
Special ventilation
Barça struck in the 55th minute: Frenkie de Jong raised the game tool behind the defensive line. Raphinha attacked the ball first and passed it in front of the goal For João Félix.
For the Portuguese, it was the easiest job of his life to move Barcelona into the lead.
João Félix was left inside the goal after his full hit. His “venting” consisted only of a hypnotic stare ahead.
The story continues after the picture
This is how João Félix fanned his opening goal. PDO
Instead, Xavi raised his hands in the air. The opening goal clearly made him feel better.
However, the joy was short-lived. A quarter of an hour later, the Barça defense was unable to break through by Fran Pérez sent by a weather observation balloon. The game tool returned from Mars to the Catalans’ penalty area, but even though the visitors had the man advantage, it remained in the possession of the white shirts.
Eventually Hugo Guillamón danced enough space to make a wonderful upper corner home.
After the equalizer, the main role was taken by the hosts’ goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashviliwho parried first Ferran Torres I bet at close range and after that some more Raph drive through.
Torres played against his parent club. The Barça striker is best friends with equaliser, Guillamón, so it was only fitting that the last spot fell to him.
The ball fell to Torres’ feet and he couldn’t get the shot off.
Barcelona were clearly the better team on the pitch, but they just couldn’t win the match. The 1-1 draw increases the pressure on the club management, and it would not be surprising if Xavi lost his job before the turn of the year.
– It was already clear beforehand that it would be disappointing if we didn’t get three points. Although the game was better now than in the Girona defeat, the team is not in a good phase, Peter said to Cadena Ser radio.
– We all support the head coach, he assured.