Messi Saves Barca From Another Liga Draw With A Goal

Following two successive draws in La Liga Barça got back to winning ways thanks to a hard fought 1-0 victory over a durable Valladolid side led by an inspired Jordi Masip in goal at Camp Nou.

Leo Messi’s 43rd minute penalty was enough to give the blaugranes all three points and they retain their healthy advantage at the top of the table with the return of the Champions League on Tuesday to come against Lyon away from home in the last 16 first leg.

Ernesto Valverde decided to leave Luis Suárez on the bench and give a Camp Nou debut as a Barça player to Kevin-Prince Boateng as well giving starts to Carles Aleñá and Thomas Vermaelen.

Visitors’ Valladolid showed that they were not going to make life easy for the blaugranes in the opening minutes as they forced the first corner of the game with barely two minutes on the clock.

The blaugranes weathered the early pressure from Sergio González’s team and the first real chance of the evening fell to debutante Boateng. After nine minutes he striker was fed by Leo Messi inside the box but could only hit his shot straight at former blaugrana Jordi Masip in goal for Valladolid.

SOURCE (BARCELONA WEBSITE)