After winning La Liga on Thursday in Cornellá, Hansi Flick‘s FC Barcelona wanted to continue the celebrations with a victory against Villarreal, a team fighting for its place in the Champions League on this 37th matchday of the unified schedule. Barça ended up losing 3-2.
FC Barcelona fails to beat Villarreal, who are chasing Champions League qualification
Villarreal stormed Montjuic to spoil the party for a hungover Barça (2-3). Marcelino García Toral’s side beat the league champions thanks to goals from Ayoze Pérez, Santi Comesaña and Tajon Buchanan to deny Barça a comeback.
Lamine Yamal equalized the Canary Islander’s goal and Fermín López put Barça ahead at halftime, but the Yellow Submarine did the rest in the second half and sealed their qualification for the Champions League.
The yellow team took the lead in the 4th minute with a goal from Ayoze Pérez (0-1), who was injured before halftime, but the Catalan side came back with goals from Lamine Yamal (1-1, min. 38) and Fermín López (min. 45+5) before the break.
After the restart, Comesaña equalized with a lobbed shot from a pass by Yeremy Pino (2-2, min. 51), who also went off injured, and Buchanan completed the visitors’ comeback with a point-blank shot from inside the area (2-3, min. 80).
The home side took the lead in the 4th minute with a goal from Ayoze Pérez (0-1), who was injured before half-time, crossing the ball into the net past Ter Stegen.
The visitors came close to scoring a second in the next move, but this time Baena’s cross was headed wide by Yeremy Pino.
Barça, still reeling from their celebrations, gradually woke up. This was largely thanks to the hyperactive Fermín, who had a chance to equalize with a shot from close range inside the area that hit Luiz Júnior’s body. The Villarreal goalkeeper saved the equalizer again midway through the first half when he deflected a Lewandowski header that was heading into the top corner for a corner kick.
All in all, Barça were dominating with authority and Luiz Júnior saved again from a header by Eric García three minutes before Lamine Yamal scored a stunning goal in the 38th minute. It was his trademark goal, the one he has made his own, where he lines up on the edge of the box with his left foot and curls the ball into the top corner, leaving any mortal goalkeeper with no chance.
Lamine Yamal himself had a chance to double the lead in added time when he slipped between two opponents with an impossible dribble before striking a venomous shot that Luiz Júnior deflected onto the crossbar.
But in the last move of the first half, Fermín was rewarded for his persistence when he pounced on a rebound on the edge of the area to make it 2-1 with a low shot into the bottom right corner, while Villarreal were down to ten men due to Ayoze’s injury.
Yellow comeback in the second half
The Tenerife striker was replaced by Barry at half-time, but Villarreal did not miss him when, five minutes after the restart, Comesaña received a ball between the lines from Baena and beat Ter Stegen with a subtle chip to make it 2-2. However, misfortune struck again for Marcelino’s side, as they lost Yeremy Pino to injury on his left hand just a quarter of an hour later.
Despite Barça continuing to dominate, they only came close to the visitors’ goal during this phase with a few long-range shots from Raphinha and Lamine. Villarreal made it 2-3 with ten minutes to go after another defensive error by the Catalan side. Buchanan, who had replaced Yeremy Pino, was left unmarked at the far post to finish off a low cross from Comesaña on the left after a poorly defended throw-in by the home side. Barça tried until the end, but the score remained unchanged.