Video: Valencia spoil Barcelona’s end of the season

Valencia defeated Spanish champions Barcelona 3-1 in the last round of La Liga at the Mestalla Stadium on Saturday night.

Robert Lewandowski scored for Barcelona in the 59th minute before Valencia responded with goals from Javi Guerra (65), Los Rioja (70) and Guido Rodriguez twice in the 90+7 minutes.

The match started with a strong pressing of the hosts, and in the 5th minute Diego Lopez threatened early with a shot over the goal post, then in the 17th minute Hugo Duro missed a dangerous opportunity with a header.

Barcelona responded with counter-attacks and Alejandro Balde almost opened the scoring in the 21st minute but hit the outside of the net and Lewandowski’s header hit the post in the 44th minute.

The second half witnesses an explosion

“Barcelona” coach Hansi Flick dismissed his defender Ronald Araujo and brought Xavi Espart into the field in the 46th minute. In the 51st minute, Diego Lopez was injured, and his place was taken by Largi Ramazani.

Lewandowski opened the scoring for Barcelona in the 59th minute after Ferran Torres’ deflected ball deflected home after taking advantage of a defensive error by Valencia.

But Valencia quickly equalized in the 65th minute when Xavi Guerra took advantage of an Espart mistake to fire a powerful shot into the left corner.

With the game heading for a draw, Los Rioja scored a valuable goal for Valencia in the 70th minute with a powerful strike from the left into the far corner after the ball had been deflected by the Barcelona defence.

Valencia were dealt a crushing blow in the 73rd minute after Marc Bernal’s tackle on Jesus Vazquez won them a penalty, but VAR overruled it in the 76th minute as the contact was outside the penalty area.

One last bite

Bernal was booked in the 79th minute and both teams made late substitutions as Valencia brought on Omar Sadiq and Thierry Correa (79-80 minutes) while Barcelona brought on Ferran Torres (81) and Bernal (83) for Joao Cancelo and Marc Casado.

In the 97th minute, the entire stadium came to a standstill to welcome first-team star Javi Guerra, who was substituted, before Guido Rodriguez fired home a powerful strike from the edge of the area to seal a 3-1 win for the Bats.

“Valencia” ended its season in 9th place with 49 points, while Barcelona’s score stopped at 94 points.