Ansu Fati is shortly changing into Barcelona’s go-to participant within the absence of Lionel Messi.
The 18-year-old Fati made his first begin for Barcelona after a protracted damage layoff on Sunday, scoring a purpose and incomes his staff a penalty because the Catalan membership halted its dropping streak by rallying to beat Valencia 3-1 within the Spanish league.
Memphis Depay and Philippe Coutinho additionally scored for Barcelona because it moved to seventh place, 5 factors behind chief Real Sociedad and with a recreation in hand.
Fati returned to motion final month after being sidelined for greater than 10 months due to a knee damage, coming off the bench in three straight matches earlier than getting his first begin on Sunday and giving followers extra hope that the membership can rebuild round him after Messi’s departure to Paris Saint-Germain. He had already scored a couple of minutes after coming into the sport in opposition to Levante.
“We’ve always said we need players like him,” stated Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman, who was again on the bench after a suspension of two league matches following a purple card for complaining. “It was his first start and it was already decided with the doctors that he would only play for about an hour. We don’t want to overwork him in such an important week for us.”
Barcelona was coming off two defeats earlier than the worldwide break _ 2-0 at Atletico Madrid within the league and 3-0 at Benfica within the Champions League. It had received solely as soon as in its final six matches in all competitions.
Barcelona has begun a three-game house stint that Koeman known as key to getting the staff again on observe. It will subsequent play a vital Champions League recreation in opposition to Dynamo Kyiv on Wednesday after which the primary “clasico” of the season in opposition to Real Madrid.
“It was a very important win, we are in a key week in the season,” Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong stated. “We started it well by earning points and gaining confidence, that’s very important for the club right now.”
The loss prolonged Valencia’s winless streak to 5 matches. It dropped to ninth place within the league.
Jose Luis Gaya opened the scoring for the guests with a robust long-range shot 5 minutes into the match on the Camp Nou Stadium, however Fati equalized from outdoors the world within the thirteenth and received the penalty kick transformed by Depay within the forty first.
Valencia complained concerning the penalty name, saying Gaya touched the ball earlier than Fati fell inside the world.
“We are outraged,” Valencia coach Jose Bordalas stated.
Coutinho, marred by accidents since returning to Barcelona, sealed the victory from shut vary within the eighty fifth for his first purpose with the Catalan membership in almost a 12 months. American defender Sergino Dest made the cross for the Brazilian.
Dest got here off within the last minutes to permit the debut of Sergio Aguero, who was signed by Barcelona from Manchester City for this season however was but to play as he had been recovering from damage.
Barcelona is 2 factors behind Madrid, Sevilla, Osasuna and defending champion Atletico Madrid. Madrid and Atletico had their weekend video games postponed as a result of some gamers had been on worldwide obligation with their nationwide groups.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Barcelona’s delegate members earlier Sunday accepted the membership’s monetary accounts for the 2020-21 season with losses of 481 million euros ($557 million). They additionally gave their approval to a funds of an working earnings of 765 million euros ($886 million) for 2021-22.
“We have to look forward and focus on getting the club back to its old self,” membership president Joan Laporta stated. “We have been working tirelessly for six months to get the club out of the institutional pit that it has fallen into. But we are not going to be able to fix this situation overnight.”
OTHER RESULTS
Third-place Sevilla rebounded from its first lack of the season with a 1-0 victory at Celta Vigo, with Rafa Mir scoring the winner early within the second half. It was the fourth loss in 5 house video games for Sixteenth-place Celta.
Osasuna received 2-1 at Villarreal with Ezequiel “Chimy” Avila scoring the winner for the guests within the 87th. Lucas Torro had opened the scoring for Osasuna within the first half and Gerard Moreno equalized early within the second half. It was the third straight victory for fifth-place Osasuna. Villarreal stayed eleventh.
With Radamel Falcao staying on the bench, sixth-place Rayo Vallecano beat 14th-place Elche 2-1 at house.
