Lionel Messi shrugged off his recent woes from the penalty spot with a decisive 94th-minute spot-kick to move Barcelona top of La Liga with a pulsating 3-2 win at Valencia on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Messi netted twice and his opener midway through the first half was allowed to stand despite Luis Suarez straying into an offside position.<\/p>\n
Valencia hit back with two goals in six second-half minutes through on-loan Barca winger Munir El Haddadi and Rodrigo.<\/p>\n
However, Suarez levelled and was then upended inside the area by Aymen Abdennour to allow Messi to hold his nerve and slot past penalty-stopping specialist Diego Alves for all three points.<\/p>\n
Victory moves the champions a point clear of Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid, who face Sevilla and Athletic Bilbao respectively on Sunday.<\/p>\n
He may be one of the finest footballers ever but Messi has struggled from the spot in recent seasons, most notably blazing over as Argentina lost the Copa America final to Chile in June.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur best penalty-taker is Leo Messi without any doubt,\u201d Barca boss Luis Enrique said.<\/p>\n
Valencia stopper Alves had saved three penalties this season and from Messi in the past, but was beaten low to his right.<\/p>\n
\u201cMessi took responsibility in the best moment and it is a glorious feeling for us,\u201d added Enrique.<\/p>\n
A bad-tempered encounter spilled over after Messi\u2019s strike, though, as Suarez and Neymar were hit by a plastic bottle thrown by the Valencia fans as Barca celebrated.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe celebrated as it is normal to celebrate a last-minute winner,\u201d said Enrique.<\/p>\n
\u2018Absolutely lamentable\u2019<\/strong> Enrique was furious with referee Alberto Undiano Mallenco as Perez avoided even a yellow card, whilst a series of other fouls on Barca players went unpunished.<\/p>\n Barca confirmed Iniesta suffered lateral collateral ligament damage, but said further tests would be carried out to determine the exact extent of the injury.<\/p>\n However, it was Valencia who were up in arms at the officials when Messi opened the scoring on 22 minutes.<\/p>\n The Argentine\u2019s fifth goal in three games since returning from a groin injury sneaked in at Alves\u2019s near post, but the Brazilian goalkeeper had been distracted by the presence of the offside Suarez jumping over Messi\u2019s effort.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is lamentable, absolutely lamentable that refereeing decisions prevented Valencia from taking a point or more from this match,\u201d Valencia sporting director Jesus Garcia Pitarch told BeIN Sports Spain.<\/p>\n Valencia turned the game around early in the second half as Dani Parejo\u2019s cut-back was drilled into the bottom corner by El Haddadi against his parent club.<\/p>\n The 21-year-old held his hands up apologetically after finding the net, but there were wild celebrations led by new Valencia boss Cesare Prandelli moments later when Rodrigo swept home Nani\u2019s through ball.<\/p>\n Valencia\u2019s lead lasted just six minutes despite Alves\u2019s best efforts as Suarez pounced to smash home a rebound after Ivan Rakitic\u2019s powerful header had been saved by the Valencia stopper.<\/p>\n Barca swarmed forward in search of a winner, but had to wait until deep into stoppage time when Messi played in Suarez and he was clearly taken out from behind by Abdennour.<\/p>\n Messi stroked home his 14th goal of the season to secure a vital three points in the title race.<\/p>\n Earlier, Espanyol battled back from 3-0 down at half-time to salvage a point and possibly coach Quique Sanchez Flores\u2019s job in a 3-3 draw at home to Eibar.<\/p>\n Granada and Sporting Gijon remain in the relegation zone after a 0-0, whilst Real Sociedad moved into the top half with a comfortable 3-0 win over Alaves.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lionel Messi shrugged off his recent woes from the penalty spot with a decisive 94th-minute spot-kick to move Barcelona top of La Liga with a pulsating 3-2 win at Valencia on Saturday. However, the dramatic victory came at a cost for Barca as a tearful Andres Iniesta suffered ligament damage in his right knee that could keep him out for several months. Messi netted twice and his opener midway through the first half was allowed to stand despite Luis Suarez straying into an offside position. Valencia hit back with two<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3320,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3319"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3319"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3321,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3319\/revisions\/3321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe game was only 14 minutes old when Iniesta was carried from the field in tears holding his right knee, which buckled under a heavy challenge from Enzo Perez.<\/p>\n