Madrid: FC Barcelona returned to winning ways, but once again were not impressive as they clinched a narrow 3-2 win at home to bottom side Almeria.
Almeria traveled to Barcelona without a win and with just five points from their first 17 games of the season, and Barca were expected to win with relative ease.
However, after Raphinha scored from close range following Ronald Araujo’s header from a 32nd minute corner, Leo Baptistao needed just eight minutes to equalize after a long VAR check to confirm he was not offside, reports Xinhua.
Almeria keeper Luis Maximiliano made several saves to keep the scores level, but could do little to stop Sergi Roberto making it 2-1 to Barca with a header from a corner.
The visitors leveled the scores again in the 72nd minute when Barca keeper Inaki Pena lost a high ball after colliding with Araujo, allowing Edgar to score from close range.
Sergi Roberto’s second of the game with eight minutes to play gave Barca the win, as the captain ran onto Robert Lewandowski’s pass to beat Maximiliano with a low shot.
Pena then redeemed himself with a great save from Iddrisu Baba’s header and the crossbar denied Roberto a hat-trick in the dying moments.
Athletic Bilbao’s Unai Gomez scored a diving header in the last minute of injury time to give the home side a 1-0 win to Las Palmas.
Until the game’s final moments, Athletic had been frustrated by Las Palmas keeper Alvaro Valles, who made several impressive saves, including a first-half penalty from Gorka Guruzeta.
The home side increased their control of the game in the last half hour, but it looked set for a draw until Gomez’s effort after Valles had dived to cut out Inaki Williams’ cross.
The win leaves Athletic level on points with fourth-placed Atletico Madrid, who drew 3-3 with Getafe on Tuesday.
Celta Vigo’s comeback fell short as they lost 3-2 away to Villarreal. The home side led 3-0 through goals from Alfonso Pedraza, Aissa Mandi and a Dani Parejo penalty, but Tasos Douvikas and Jorgen Strand Larsen scored early in the second half for the visitors.
–IANS
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