Raphinha’s header in the first half was enough to give LaLiga leaders Barcelona a close win over struggling Valencia on Sunday, even though they were down to 10 men for the last 30 minutes.
Barca bounced back from last week’s disappointing loss to lowly Almeria by earning three hard-fought points at Camp Nou, even though they looked like the weaker team for most of the game.
They have 62 points, which is 9 more than second-placed Real Madrid, who tied 0-0 at Betis later on Sunday. Valencia is in second-to-last place with 23 points. In their last 10 league games, they have only won one.
The home team started out strong, led by Raphinha, who had a couple of early chances. In the 15th minute, after a great long pass from midfielder Sergio Busquets, Raphinha nodded a header over the goalkeeper.
Raphinha and Ansu Fati had chances to make Barca’s lead bigger, but Valencia came back from falling behind early to take control of the game. Thierry Correia, Samuel Lino, and Ilaix Moriba all had clear chances to tie the score but missed them.
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After halftime, Valencia was in charge, but Hugo Guillamon’s handball inside the box in the 55th minute gave Barcelona a great chance to add to their lead. Ferran Torres’ penalty shot went wide of the goal, so it was all for nothing.
Five minutes later, though, defender Ronald Araujo got a straight red card for a last-man foul on Hugo Duro, and Barcelona had a hard time keeping their lead in the last 30 minutes.
Fran Perez, Jesus Vazquez, and Yunus Musah all had clear chances to tie it up, and Valencia players protested in vain about what they thought was a clear foul by Franck Kessie on Perez inside the penalty area in the 85th minute.
“We have been through too much today,” Xavi Hernandez, the coach of Barcelona, told Movistar Plus. “After the red card, we did a good job of defending, but we should have scored the second goal before that.
“We’ve won close games like this before, but we couldn’t do it today because we weren’t very good, so we had to suffer until the end. It’s a chance to learn and grow.”
