Barcelona lengthen their lead on the prime of the league to seven factors with late comeback at residence.
LaLiga leaders Barcelona have fought again from 3-1 right down to beat Celta Vigo 4-3 in a roller-coaster encounter as a stoppage-time penalty by Raphinha extends their lead over Actual Madrid on the prime of the desk to seven factors.
With the rating tied at 3-3 after Celta’s Borja Iglesias netted a hat-trick, Saturday’s recreation in Barcelona gave the impression to be heading for a draw when Dani Olmo gained a penalty deep into added time and Raphinha stepped as much as rating and seal the three factors.
The end result places the stress again on Actual Madrid, who play fourth-placed Athletic Bilbao on Sunday. Celta Vigo are seventh with 43 factors.
“That is soccer. We needed to win this recreation, however we weren’t all the time at our greatest,” Barca substitute and aim scorer Dani Olmo advised DAZN. “However the workforce got here by way of ultimately, and the group pushed us on proper to the end.
“It’s three factors in direction of our goal, however we’ve to maintain going.”
Barcelona took the lead when Ferran Torres picked up the ball in midfield and located house to dribble in direction of aim, pulling the set off from the sting of the field to beat goalkeeper Vicente Guaita for his tenth league aim of the season.
However Celta responded instantly when Pablo Duran put in an excellent cross from the wing, and as Wojciech Szczesny sprinted off his line to gather the ball, the Polish keeper missed it to present Iglesias a tap-in into an empty internet.
Barca fell behind seven minutes into the second half when Frenkie de Jong made an error and utterly missed a protracted ball, permitting Iglesias to run by way of and beat Szczesny to seize his second aim.
Iglesias hat-trick for Celta Vigo
As Barca pushed ahead to search out an equaliser, a Celta clearance discovered Iglesias once more, and he capitalised on the house aspect’s excessive line to dash by way of on aim and beat Szczesny for a 3rd time to say his hat-trick.
A surprised Barcelona tried to get better rapidly, they usually bought one again within the sixty fourth minute when Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha mixed to search out Olmo, who scored 5 minutes after approaching instead.
“He [coach Hansi Flick] advised me we wanted to play slightly extra calmer. We simply wanted to attach with one another higher,” Olmo stated about what Flick advised him earlier than he went onto the pitch.
4 minutes later, Barcelona levelled it at 3-3 when Lamine Yamal crossed the ball into the 5.5-metre (6-yard) field, the place Raphinha rose above the defence to go residence.
A shell-shocked Celta appeared to depart with some extent, however Olmo earned a penalty when he was fouled within the field and the referee had no doubts when he pointed to the spot after a VAR verify.
Raphinha then stepped up and blasted the ball into the highest nook within the 98th minute for his thirtieth aim in all competitions this season.
“It’s a bittersweet feeling as a result of we did quite a lot of issues proper,” Celta’s Pablo Duran stated. “They’ve bought such a excessive stage, particularly within the last third. They’re able to these items.
“We must be very pleased with ourselves, coming right here and exhibiting quite a lot of character, enjoying our soccer. For lots of the sport, we had been higher than them, however we go away with a nasty feeling due to the end result.”
