Barcelona‘s La Liga title hope was severely dented as they were forced to a 2-2 draw against Celta Vigo at Estadio Municipal de Balaídos. With this draw, Barcelona went ahead of their rival Real Madrid by one point at the top of La Liga table, but they have played a match more.
Barcelona could take a lead as early as fifth minute but Pique header banged into bar post.
Barcelona took 1-0 lead as Luis Suarez header ended into back of the net, from a clever free-kick from Lionel Messi at 19th minute but Fedor Smolov levelled from Okay Yokuslu’s pass.
Suarez then swivelled and fired for his and team’s second goal – from another Messi pass. But Aspas, Suarez’s Liverpool teammate rescued Celta with a perfect low free-kick .
Celta Vigo should have won the game deep into injury time but Nolito’s close-range shot was straight at Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
Messi, who has not scored in three games, is still on 699 career goals for Barca and Argentina. But he assisted for both the Suarez’s goals and took his assist talley to 250th assist of his Barca career at the end of the match. The Argentinian is directly involved with 38 goals. He is the top goalscorer with 21 and top assister with 17 in La Liga in the current season.
Real Madrid can have a two-point lead if they beat Espanyol on Sunday. Real Madrid and Barcelona have seven and six matches to close the 2019-20 La Liga campaign respectively. Next match for Barcelona would be real decider as they would meet third placed team Atletico Madrid at Camp Nou on Tuesday.
Celta Vigo
13-Blanco, 18-Aidoo, 4-Araújo <Booked at 61> (Murillo 73), 16-Sáenz, 20-Vázquez, 23-Méndez <Booked at 34> (Bradaric 60), 5-Yokuslu (Rafinha 60), 6-D Suárez, 29-González (Mina Lorenzo 81), 10-Iago Aspas <Booked at 89>, 9-Smolov (Nolito 60)
Substitutes
3-Nolito, 7-Hernández, 12-Rafinha, 14-Bradaric, 19-Fernández, 21-Murillo, 22-Mina Lorenzo, 24-Diop Gueye, 25-Villar, 28-Bermejo, 31-Fontán, 40-Rosic
Barcelona
1-ter Stegen, 2-Nélson Semedo, 3-Piqué <Booked at 90>, 23-Umtiti <Booked at 53>, 18-Alba <Booked at 12> (Firpo 81), 22-Vidal, 4-Rakitic, 28-Puig (Arthur 86), 10-Messi, 9-Suárez (Griezmann 81), 31-Fati (Braithwaite 69 <Booked at 82>)
Substitutes
8-Arthur, 13-Murara Neto, 15-Lenglet, 17-Griezmann, 19-Braithwaite, 24-Firpo, 26–Peña, 3-Collado, 33-Araújo, 35-Morer Cabrera, 42-Rodríguez Jiménez, 43-Cuenca
