Barcelona’s championship party was gatecrashed on Sunday by humble Real Mallorca who stunned the double winners 2-1 with two late goals.
Samuel Eto’o, who missed a late penalty that would have salvaged a point, had headed Barca ahead with his 29th goal of the season after just 10 minutes at the Ono Stadium, but a Juan Arango free-kick after 73 minutes and Cleber Santana header after 78 minutes secured a comeback win.
Barcelona had won their 19th league title on Saturday when Real Madrid lost 3-2 at Villarreal and Mallorca’s players saluted the champions with a guard of honor to mark their visitors’ achievement of securing a league and cup double for the first time since 1998.
PHOTO: AFP
“With other players I would not be a champion, but they certainly would be with another coach,” Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola said. “I appreciate the praise, but it is the talent of the players and their humility to work hard that has taken us this far.”
With one eye on the Champions League final against Manchester United on May 27, Barca manager Guardiola rested stars such as Lionel Messi, Xavi, Carles Puyol and Victor Valdes.
In came youth players such as Pedro Ledesma, 21, midfielder Xavi Torres, 22, and 19-year-old goalkeeper Oier Olazabal. However, it was one of Barca’s star performers who stole the limelight, with old boy Eto’o sending a bullet header in off the underside of the crossbar in the 10th minute after a great cross from Bojan Krkic.
Eto’o made his name at Mallorca in four glorious seasons before joining Barcelona in 2004.
Arango drilled home a free-kick in the 73rd minute to equalize and five minutes later Santana flicked in a header. Eto’o missed a spot-kick in the dying seconds to sum up his night.
“Eto’o scored a great goal and had his chances, including the penalty miss, but I can’t fault him as he has scored goals all season and will continue to do so,” Guardiola said. “I can’t reproach the team at all. We had a lot of players who had not played much and they had to tonight.”
The defeat means Barca — currently on 86 points with two games left — can now only equal Real’s all-time record of 92 points set back in 1997 — although there were 42 games in a season compared to the current 38.
Barca are also gunning for Real’s goals record of 107 set back in 1990 and need three goals to equal the mark.
Elsewhere, Atletico Madrid took pole position in the Champions League race with a 1-0 home win over rivals Valencia.
Diego Forlan scored from the penalty spot on the half-hour mark for his 28th goal of the season, just one behind Eto’o in the goalscoring charts.
Atletico leapfrog Valencia into fourth holding a two-point cushion over both Valencia and Villarreal with just two games left and are on course to qualify for the Champions League for the second successive season.
Valencia goalkeeper Cesar Sanchez was furious about the winning penalty, which he conceded, claiming Argentine Sergio “Kun” Aguero dived and the two had a heated exchange of words.
Forlan didn’t care, smashing in the spot-kick to score for the sixth consecutive league game.
At the other end of the table, Recreativo Huelva need to pull out something special if they are to stay in the Spanish top-flight as they sunk to the bottom of the table with a 1-0 loss at relegation rivals Numancia.
An 88th-minute penalty from Jose Barkero won the game for promoted Numancia who moved off the foot of the table at Recre’s expense.
It was a disastrous result for Recre and to make matters worse rivals Real Betis, Sporting Gijon, Racing Santander and Espanyol all won.
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