New Delhi: Barcelona came within seconds of winning La Liga but a late, late Villarreal goal forced them to put the champagne on ice.
After the high drama at Chelsea in midweek in the Champions League, Barcelona had a chance to continue their wild celebrations in Catalunya well into next week.
With their arch nemesis, Real Madrid stumbling at Valencia 24 hours earlier, the Blaugrana knew that they could officially wrap up the Primera Division title on Sunday night in front of 90, 000-plus die-hards with a win against Villarreal.
First Half
The noise and celebrations at the Camp Nou pre-kick off was deafening as the fans continued to revel in their heroes’ success at Stamford Bridge last Wednesday. And on the pitch, Barca came out all guns blazing as usual, with Andres Iniesta and Dani Alves providing two teasing centres into the box in the opening 120 seconds but Diego Lopez was alert to the threat.
Samuel Eto’o almost had the home crowd on their feet in the fifth minute when he sent his volley inches wide from six yard out after connecting with another delicious delivery from Dani. And four minutes later, Eric Abidal picked out Xavi with a brilliantly weighted cross right on the byline, but the playmaker’s half volley flashed just wide.
But on 12 minutes, Barca deservedly rocketed ahead when Seydou Keita ran onto Abidal’s through ball and sprinted past Sebastian Eguren, before unleashing a left-foot shoot which took a wicked deflection off Gonzalo and looped over a stranded Diego Lopez.
It was almost two in the 20th minute when Eto’o danced down the left and cut into the box before checking it back to Xavi, but his first time shot spun away wide. It took a slight deflection on the way out but a goal kick was given, and that lead to a surprise Villarreal equaliser which stunned the Camp Nou into silence.
Yaya Toure was robbed off the ball in midfield and Ariel Ibagaza darted forward before sneaking a through ball to Giuseppe Rossi inside the box down the left channel. The Italian squared a low cross to the middle past a flailing Victor Valdes and Joseba Llorente easily stabbed the ball into the open net.
The Yellow Submarine were growing in confidence and for the next few minutes, the Blaugrana were struggling to get the ball out of their own half. And in the 25th minute, the visitors almost took a shock lead when Rossi’s thumping header from an Ibagaza cross looked destined to ripple the net, but Valdes made a superlative one-handed block to palm it away just as he was about to dive the opposite direction.
Barcelona patiently stemmed the tide to regain control and on 35 minutes, they were back infront. Iniesta latched onto Messi’s through pass towards the byline, slid forward to keep it in play and away from Gonzalo’s challenge, before drilling in a low centre for Eto’o to rifle the ball into the bottom corner.
The Camp Nou was rocking again and three minutes later, Xavi curled in a sumptuous freekick which just sailed over the bar, before Eto’o blazed a volley over from close range following a goalmouth scramble.
But the Catalans eventually found the buffer they were looking for in first half injury time with another freekick just on the edge of the box. Dani Alves stepped up this time and arrowed it into the top corner as Diego Lopez could only get a finger tip to it to push it into his own net.
Second Half
Chants of ‘Campeones! Campeones!’ greeted Barcelona out for the start of the second period. And five minutes into the restart, Barcelona had the ball in the back for a fourth time.
Dani’s cross found Toure, but his lunging bullet header was parried away by Diego Lopez and Xavi duly followed through with the rebound, but the flag had already gone up for offside.
Villarreal looked dispirited and the intensity of the game dropped off dramatically as they took the pressure off the hosts in midfield. Both sides could only create half chances and Barca were content to fashion openings only with eye-candy football.
Eto’o has one such opportunity on 71 minutes when he ran onto Messi’s through ball and checked past Gonzalo but his wild right-foot piledriver on the edge of the box flew into the stands.
But with 15 minutes to go, Villarreal were thrown a lifeline. Abidal shoulder-charged Nihat off the ball inside the box as the Turk bore down on goal and for the second game in a row, the French left-back was given a straight red as he was deemed to be the last defender. Mati Fernandez smacked the penalty into the top right corner with authority.
Five minutes later, Barca came within centimetres of giving away another penalty when Dani Alves cynically clipped Llorente. Nihat’s low freekick drive smacked against the wall, but the Blaugrana failed to clear the danger and a goalmouth scramble almost produced a heart attack in the Camp Nou stands, before Puyol drew a foul to give his side some respite.
What was a comfortable stroll turned into a tense finale for the Catalans and their ‘cules’ as El Submarino came alive and one minute into injury, the Camp Nou were truly shocked into disbelief as the visitors equalised two minutes into injury time.
Llorente brought a long ball out of defence with deft control, jinked past Carles Puyol inside the box and hammered in his shot past Valdes into the top of the net.
With three rounds to go, Barca now have an eight-point lead over Real Madrid and they only need a draw next week at Real Mallorca to seal the title.
Teams
Barcelona (4-3-3): Victor Valdes – Dani Alves, Pique, Puyol, Abidal – Xavi (Busquets, 84’), Toure, Keita – Messi (Gudjohnsen, 89’), Eto’o (Sylvinho, 78’), Iniesta
Unused subs: Bojan, Hleb, Caceres, Pinto
Villarreal (4-4-2): Diego Lopez, Venta, Gonzalo, Godin, Capdevila – Cani, Eguren, Ibagaza (Mati Fernandez, 72’), Pires (Bruno, 63’) – Joseba Llorente, Rossi (Nihat, 63’)
Unused subs: Fuentes, Mati, Angel, Viera
Barcelona 3-3 Villarreal
1-0: Barcelona (Keita, 12’)
1-1: Villarreal (Llorente, 21’)
2-1: Barcelona (Eto’o, 35’)
3-1: Barcelona (Dani Alves, 45+1’)
3-2: Villarreal (Mati Fernandez, 76’ pen.)
3-3: Villarreal (Llorente, 90+2')
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