Barcelona, Spain (SportsNetwork.com) – Barcelona’s woes continued on Saturday
as the club suffered its second consecutive La Liga defeat in a 1-0 home loss
to Celta Vigo.
The Catalans were handed a loss by Real Madrid in El Clasico last weekend but
failed to rebound as Joaquin Larrivey notched the lone goal at Camp Nou.
Barcelona had the better run of play in the opening period but failed to
capitalize.
The hosts were made to pay for their missed chances as Celta Vigo made the
most of some sloppy defending in the 55th minute. A long ball over the top was
not properly dealt with by the Barcelona defense, allowing Larrivey to latch
on to a through ball and slot home from close range.
Celta Vigo clung to the narrow lead and ultimately collected the victory,
putting the club on 19 points for the season.
Barcelona remains on 22 points, dropping to third place in the table.
Real Madrid climbed up to the summit by cruising to a 4-0 victory at Granada
on Saturday.
Cristiano Ronaldo bagged a second-minute goal to put the visitors in a
comfortable position from the get-go while James Rodriguez doubled their
advantage just after the half-hour mark.
The second half was much of the same for Madrid as Karim Benzema and Rodriguez
produced a goal apiece to complete the rout and lift the club to 24 points
through 10 games.
Atletico Madrid also moved ahead of Barcelona by grinding out a 4-2 victory
over Cordoba at the Vicente Calderon on Saturday, a result that put the
reigning champions on 23 points.
Antoine Griezmann bagged a brace for Atletico while Mario Mandzukic and Raul
Garcia added a goal apiece to negate Nabil Ghilas’ double.
Saturday’s final La Liga contest saw Juanmi tally the lone goal in Malaga’s
1-0 win at Real Sociedad.
