Barcelona maintained their slim chances of retaining their La Liga title as they came from behind to beat Athletic Bilbao 2-1 at the Camp Nou on Sunday.
Aritz Aduriz’s opener five minutes into the second-half had Barca on course for a fourth consecutive defeat in all competitions.
However, the Catalans showed fine spirit to respond as two goals in as many minutes from Pedro Rodriguez and Lionel Messi handed them all three points.
Victory lifts Barca into second place, two points ahead of Real Madrid, having played a game more, but still four points adrift of leaders Atletico Madrid, with four games remaining.
Defeat for Athletic also hots up the race for fourth place as the Basque side now lead Sevilla by just three points, with the two sides set to meet next weekend.
After a difficult 10 days that saw his side eliminated from the Champions League, lose the Copa del Rey final to Real Madrid and see their title chances dented by defeat at Granada last weekend, Barca boss Gerardo Martino hailed his players resolve.
“In the first half, I was thinking it would be one of those days because it is not normal that a team has so many chances and doesn’t score,” he said. “They kept playing and with a lot of heart in a difficult situation. More than just playing good football, which they always do, they showed a lot of courage and heart.”
And Javier Mascherano insisted they have to keep the pressure on Atletico and Real to ensure they remain in a position to take advantage of any slip ups in the final month of the season.
“We need to cling on to the little chance we have, there is no point in the two teams above us slipping up if we don’t win our games,” he told Canal Plus.
“We are missing a lot of chances. Once again, we had to come from behind, but that is the attitude that we have to show. We played well, albeit we found it difficult to score,” he said.
Barca had the majority of the chances early on as Pedro wasted the first opening of the game as he placed his shot too close to Gorka Iraizoz before the Athletic goalkeeper also smothered an effort from Messi.
It was the visitors who nearly went in front in spectacular style on the half hour, though, as Aduriz sent a stunning overhead-kick crashing off the inside of the post and Jose Manuel Pinto reacted well to parry Markel Susaeta’s follow-up effort.
Barca were shocked into action by that scare and should have been in front moments later, when Alexis Sanchez turned Pedro’s low cross on to the crossbar.
Iraizoz then made two more comfortable saves from Pedro and Sanchez to keep the scores level at the break and things got even better for Athletic five minutes after the restart when Aduriz’s low strike this time found the bottom corner of the net.
Barca then laid siege to the Athletic goal as Pedro again shot straight at Iraizoz when clean through, before Messi also wasted a great chance when he pulled his shot wide of the target.
The hosts did finally find a way through 18 minutes from time in somewhat fortunate circumstances as Sanchez’s intended shot fell perfectly into the path of Pedro to tap home his 19th goal of the season.
Two minutes later, Barca had turned the game on its head as Messi was felled on the edge of the area by Oscar de Marcos and picked himself up to thump the resulting free-kick low into the far corner.
Barca should have extended their lead as Javier Mascherano and Cristian Tello wasted great opportunities on the counterattack.
And they were nearly made to pay when Mascherano had to make a last-ditch challenge to prevent Mikel Rico equalizing in stoppage time.
In other Spanish league action, in Madrid, Real Betis Balompie defender Paulao asked to be substituted just half an hour into his side’s 3-1 defeat at Rayo Vallecano de Madrid after he committed two huge errors that led to Rayo’s first two goals.
The Brazilian’s short backpass allowed Ruben Rochina to open the scoring before he turned Anaitz Arbilla’s cross into his own net on 32 minutes.
A dejected Paulao then asked to be replaced and coach Gabriel Calderon admitted the 31-year-old was not in the right mental state to continue.
“From my experience in football, I thought about changing him and then it was clear he was thinking the same thing and asked to be subbed. It was obvious that he was not going to be able to stick it out,” he said.
A 22nd defeat in 34 league games put Betis on the break of being mathematically relegated as they are now 10 points from safety with four games remaining.
In other games, RC Celta de Vigo beat UD Almeria 4-2, while Sevilla beat Granada 4-0.
OUT AGAINST INDONESIA: Taiwan reached the semi-finals at the tournament for the first time by defeating Denmark, with Chou Tien-chen beating Viktor Axelsen Taiwan yesterday crashed out of the Thomas Cup team competition in Chengdu, China, but achieved their best result at the top-tier badminton event by reaching the semi-finals. Indonesia were too good in the semis, winning 3-0 to advance to today’s final against China, who eliminated Malaysia 3-1. In the opening singles of the men’s team clash at the Hi-Tech Zone Sports Center Gymnasium 2, Anthony Ginting defeated Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen 21-18, 21-19 in 51 minutes, which put a huge hole in Taiwan’s aspirations to perhaps even make the final. In the men’s doubles, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Ardianto downed Lee Yang and Wang
NO DOUBT: Spurs star Wembanyama was unanimously selected as NBA Rookie of the Year, winning all 99 votes to become the first Frenchman to capture the honor The Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night produced a dominant defensive display to seize a commanding 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven playoff series against the Denver Nuggets with a 106-80 road victory. The third-seeded Timberwolves harassed Denver relentlessly to claim a second straight win over the NBA champions as the series heads back to Minneapolis for Game 3 on Friday. Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards scored 27 points apiece, but the star of the show was Minnesota’s suffocating defensive effort, which knocked Denver out of their stride almost from the tip-off. The Timberwolves finished with 11 steals and 12 blocks, in sharp contrast to
Top-ranked Iga Swiatek on Saturday came through “the most intense and crazy final” she has ever contested to avenge her loss to Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s Madrid Open final with a grueling three hour, 11 minute victory in the Spanish capital. Coming back from 1-3 down in the decider and saving three match points in total, Swiatek claimed a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (9/7) victory to secure the Madrid Open trophy for the first time. “Well, who is going to say now that women’s tennis is boring, right?” Swiatek said. Swiatek, who picked up the 20th title of her career, and ninth at
One of Malaysia’s top soccer clubs has pulled out of today’s season-opening Charity Shield after a spate of assaults, including an acid attack, on players in the country. It leaves the kickoff of Malaysia’s season this weekend under a cloud following the unprecedented acts of violence against players, which have left the country shocked and angry. Authorities said they have imposed tighter security, but Selangor said that they would not play in the showpiece curtain-raiser against Malaysian Super League champions Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) citing “a series of criminal incidents and recent threats.” Selangor and Malaysia winger Faisal Halim is in intensive care