La Liga leaders Barcelona suffered an embarrassing 1-0 defeat against Almeria on Sunday, missing an opportunity to extend their advantage over Real Madrid, who had drawn their derby with Atletico. El Bilal Toure’s impressive first-half strike secured Almeria’s first-ever victory over Barcelona, marking only the second defeat for the Catalans in this league campaign. Despite this setback, Xavi Hernandez’s team maintains a seven-point lead over the reigning champions, Madrid. However, their morale has taken a hit following their midweek exit from the Europa League against Manchester United. Barcelona is set to face Madrid in the first leg of the Clasico Copa del Rey semi-final on Thursday at the Santiago Bernabeu, and their vulnerabilities are becoming increasingly apparent.
A victory against Almeria would have allowed Barcelona to extend their lead in the title race to double digits, as they aim to win La Liga for the first time since 2019. Earlier in the season, Madrid handed Barcelona their first defeat in October, and Almeria’s win ended Barcelona’s subsequent 13-game unbeaten run in the league. Xavi expressed his frustration after the match, stating, “I’m very angry because I think we played our worst game of the season. Above all in the first half, we couldn’t move the ball around; we lacked intensity and speed on a day where we couldn’t mess up. We did not show the passion needed to win the game. In the second half, yes, but they defended well.”
Xavi, already missing injured players Pedri, Ousmane Dembele, and Ansu Fati, took a risk by rotating his squad, which ultimately backfired. Almeria, starting the match in 19th place with only one victory in their previous eight league games, took control early on and went ahead with Toure’s emphatic finish. The Mali international skillfully cushioned a long ball into the path of striker Luis Suarez, then spun and surged forward. Suarez lofted a pass over Andreas Christensen, allowing Toure to lash a shot past Marc-Andre ter Stegen and into the net off the crossbar. This goal marked only the eighth league goal Barcelona has conceded this season, preventing Ter Stegen from adding to his impressive tally of 17 clean sheets.
At the other end, Almeria successfully kept La Liga’s top scorer, Robert Lewandowski, quiet, as he failed to trouble Almeria goalkeeper Fernando Martinez. In a desperate attempt, Xavi pushed defender Araujo into attack, but his header went inches wide of the far post, which was as close as Barcelona came to equalizing. Ter Stegen made a brilliant save to deny Adrian Embarba during a counterattack, while Almeria defended resolutely to secure their historic victory. Following the match, Ter Stegen expressed confidence that Barcelona would recover in time for the cup clash against Madrid, stating, “It’s a defeat; it always hurts, and it never arrives at a good moment, but we will calm ourselves. It’s important to charge our batteries for Thursday. We’re looking forward, and we will achieve what we want to.”
With this victory, Almeria climbed to 15th place, now two points clear of the relegation zone. Almeria’s coach, Rubi, praised his team’s performance, saying, “The best team in the league came to us; they’re first, and we were capable of blocking them and taking advantage of the chance we had.” In other matches, Jorge Sampaoli’s Sevilla twice came from behind but ultimately fell to a 3-2 home defeat against Osasuna, leaving them in 14th place, just two points above the relegation zone. David Garcia opened the scoring for Osasuna in the first half, but Nemanja Gudelj equalized for Sevilla with a stunning long-range effort. An unfortunate own goal by Fernando restored Osasuna’s lead, but Morocco striker Youssef En Nesyri leveled the match again. The thrilling encounter was decided when on-loan Barcelona winger Ez Abde scored a fine solo goal with five minutes remaining, securing a victory for Osasuna, who rose to seventh place and look forward to a Copa del Rey semi-final against Athletic Bilbao on Wednesday.
In another match, Girona claimed an exciting 3-2 victory at Athletic Bilbao, climbing into mid-table. Aleix Garcia inspired the win by opening the scoring, while own goals from Oscar de Marcos and Mikel Vesga extended Girona’s lead. Athletic Bilbao fought back with goals from Yuri Berchiche and Raul Garcia, but they could not find an equalizer. Additionally, young Celta Vigo star Gabri Veiga scored twice and assisted another goal for Haris Seferovic in a 3-0 win over Real Valladolid.
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