Barcelona knows how to survive.
Thanks to a goal from Raphinha, the blaugranas defeated Valencia 1-0 on Sunday to return to the triumphant path in the Spanish League.
Brazilian attacker Raphinha sent a header into the net for the only goal of the match in the first half.
But the rest of the process was an ordeal for the leaders who had just suffered a defeat against Almería on the previous date.
Ferran Torres wasted a penalty that would have widened the difference at the start of the match and Barça played short-handed for the last half hour due to the expulsion of Uruguayan defender Ronald Araujo.
The azulgranas reached 62 units from the top of the championship, 10 above Real Madrid guard who later visited Real Betis. Valencia will end the 24th day in the relegation zone.
“We did what we needed to do, we had to lower the lines (because of Araujo’s expulsion),” Raphinha said. “The most important thing was that we didn’t suffer from any goal and we came out with the victory.”
Raphinha took advantage of Sergio Busquets’s cross into the heart of the area after 15 minutes and hit a great brake before goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili’s poor start. It was the Brazilian’s fifth goal in the tournament.
Against Valencia, Pedri and Robert Lewandowski were back in the stands due to physical discomfort, as well as Gavi for serving a suspension. The coach Xavi Hernández was not on the bench either when settling a one-match penalty.
In the first minutes of the plug-in, Torres crashed the collection of a penalty on the post. Torres and his partner Ansu Fati discussed who should be in charge of the execution. It was Barca’s second maximum penalty in the tournament and both have been missed.
Barcelona closed the week with a couple of fundamental victories in their effort to win a domestic title double. They beat Madrid 1-0 on Thursday in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semifinals, despite the absences of Pedri, Gavi, Robert Lewandowski and Andreas Christensen.
For the next visiting duel against Athletic Bilbao, Barça will not have Araujo. The Uruguayan saw the direct red card at minute 59 after avoiding a dangerous Valencian attack with a free kick.
The Catalan team obtained its eighth victory by 1-0, in addition to achieving its 18th date without conceding a goal.
Instead, Valencia suffered its 13th loss to stagnate in the penultimate position with 23 points.
Valladolis leaves relegation
Iván Sánchez and Álvaro Aguado scored the goals with which Valladolid beat Espanyol 2-1 at home, moving away from the relegation zone.
Valladolid rose to 14th position with 27 units.
Martin Braithwaite scored near the end for Espanyol, also placed 12th with 27 points.
