Winning the League and lowering the tempo in defense has gone hand in hand for Barcelona, who have suffered their second consecutive defeat at the Nuevo Zorrilla after the match against Real Sociedad at the Camp Nou last Saturday. Valladolid, hurried by the need to avoid relegation, experienced its own party. After 20 minutes they were already winning by 2-0 and finished with a conclusive victory by 3-1, something that not even the most optimistic of Ronaldo's team could imagine or dream of.
Without Araújo or Koundé, Barcelona's defense condemned the away team. The game could not have started worse for the Blaugrana, who were already losing a minute and a half into the game when a cross from the Venezuelan Machís sent him towards his own goal with a header from Christensen, who was already coming from a game bad (strange in him) against Real. The headbutt left Ter Stegen unanswered and the fans from Vallée went from angry to displaying black bags (they had been distributed at the entrance) as a protest against the Federation for the arbitrations, to believe in the miracle.
Conceding a goal so early made Barcelona go forward with a certain anger. Their midfield line crossed the center of the field and the game began to settle around Masip, with the push of Gavi and De Jong. Raphinha had the first chance, but his left-footed shot was too focused and Valladolid took a breather. Uruguayan Paulo Pezzolano's team, which had lost five in a row, had seven changes from the last game and with a 4-3-3, in which Óscar Plano, Roque Mesa and Aguado reappeared, and were very comfortable to counterattack What was not expected is that in another of his first appearances for the visiting area, he would score again. The goal came in a bad start by Ter Stegen that ended with a foul by Eric Garcia on Gonzalo Plata inside the area. Eric Garcia didn't have his day either, and he didn't play as a central player but as a midfielder. The maximum sentence was carried out by Cyle Larin.
At 2-0, Barça attacked Masip's goal, who was the hero of his team until half-time. The Blaugrana generated a lot of play at the top, but they were unlucky in the finish. Raphinha was the one who tried more times, most of them assisted by Pablo Torre, the starter on a bad day to be able to show his skills. Lewandowski, Eric García and Sergi Roberto also had their chances.
The second half started with a surprise. Iñaki Peña replaced Ter Stegen in goal and Kessié came on for Sergi Roberto. Xavi thus protected Zamora from the German goalkeeper.
The match kept its same line with Barcelona more dominating the ball, but this time during the first quarter of an hour with almost no chances. Valladolid, in fact, looked more threatening when they crossed the midfield line and in the 60th minute they almost made it 3-0 in a brilliant counter that ended with a cross from the Ecuadorian Gonzalo Plata that Larin failed to control.
Dembelé and Ferran Torres came in for Raphinha and Pablo Torre, looking for more depth on the wings. As he left the pitch while being substituted, Raphinha left the image of the match: he took off his Blaugrana shirt and displayed a message of support for Vinícius on the shirt underneath. It said TMJ on the back. In Portuguese, "we are together".
Barça's changes had no effect. Their dominance was quickly extinguished as Valladolid found their third goal on the counter with a Gonzalo Plata finish. The VAR validated the goal after checking that Eric García broke the offside. Xavi's team was starving. Fresneda had another counterattack to make it 4-0, but sent the shot off the post, with Iñaki Peña beaten. In 83 Lewandowski finally managed to mitigate the damage with the goal of honor in a match to forget.
