Barcelona’s winning streak in the league stops in two as the Blaugrana drew 2-2 with Valencia at the Camp Nou. Barça were terrible in the first half but came back strong in the second, but Valencia fought hard and played well enough to score a great point at Camp Nou.
FIRST HALF
Barça played an absolutely terrible first half, fighting in attack and defense and allowing Valencia to be comfortable with and without the ball and bring a lot of danger against them.
Valencia played very well and deserved the advantage, and they did so thanks to a terrible defense from Barça and a header from Diakhaby. The visitors created another great opportunity through Gomez, but Ter Stegen made a great save. And as Barça seemed destined to go into halftime losing, they received a gift in the form of a penalty from José Gayà.
Lionel Messi missed the penalty shot, but Jordi Alba got to the ball first and crossed it back to Messi, who headed in a big draw just before halftime. Facing the break, Barça deserved to lose, but somehow it wasn’t and had the chance to win if it improved in the second half.
SECOND HALF
Barça played a solid second half, putting pressure and scoring a quick goal thanks to a great volley from Ronald Araujo, but Valencia managed to weather the storm, avoid a third Barça goal and draw through Maxi Gómez.
The last 20 minutes were wild, with the ball going from one extreme to the other like a basketball game and without control of either team, who kept shooting crosses into the area and counterattacking each other.
There were no more goals and the final whistle arrived and a very entertaining second half. The draw is fair given how badly Barça played the first half, but they came out strong in the last half and created enough to win. Good game this one.
Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Dest, Araujo, Mingueza, Alba; Pedri (Pjanic 85 ‘), Busquets (De Jong 46’), Coutinho (Lenglet 79 ‘); Griezmann (Trincão 73 ‘), Messi, Braithwaite
Goals: Messi (45 ‘+ 4), Araujo (52’)
Valencia: Jaume; Wass, Gabriel, Diakhaby, Gayà; Musah (Blanco 42 ‘), Soler, Racic, Cheryshev (Lee 90’); Guedes (Vallejo 87 ‘), Gómez
Goals: Diakhaby (30 ‘), Gómez (69’)
