Thanks to a late goal from Sergi Roberto, Barcelona defeated Almeria 3-2 at home on Wednesday, moving them up to third place in La Liga. Raphinha’s goal in the first half and Sergi Roberto’s double helped Xavi Hernandez’s team win at the end of 2023. Leo Baptistao and Edgar Gonzalez’s goals twice allowed the 20th-placed visitors to pull within one goal of the Catalan giants, but in the end, the home team prevailed. Both teams had several excellent opportunities in the first forty-five minutes as Barcelona methodically attempted to break down the visitors.
When captain Sergi Roberto found himself alone in the middle of the box, it almost looked like an early set-piece would win the game for the Catalans, but ‘keeper Luis Maximiano did a fantastic job blocking his headed attempt.
In the thirteenth minute, Largie Ramazani’s attempt was narrowly missed by Ronald Araujo, and Joao Cancelo had to step in to save it, giving the hosts a warning shot at the other end.
In minute 33, Raphinha opened the score when Araujo’s header from a corner was allowed by a feeble Almeria’s defense. Maximiano made another excellent save, but he was powerless to stop Raphinha’s fierce rebound.
Xavi’s team, now leading, eased off the gas, but not before Robert Lewandowski was gifted a chance in the box by a defender and Maximiano pulled off another outstanding save to deny him.
Their downfall was ultimately caused by this decrease in intensity, as Leo Baptistao stunned them with an equalizer eight minutes later.
The assistant’s flag was raised shortly after Sergio Arribas’ dinked finish over Inaki Pena, which was made possible by Araujo’s defensive blunder.
VAR replays revealed that although he had been offside at one point during the move, he had returned to being onside when Arribas passed him the ball.
At halftime, Xavi made the substitutions, sending on Ferran Torres and Jules Kounde in place of Andreas Christensen and Joao Felix.
Three minutes after halftime, Torres made an immediate impact by working the Portuguese custodian with a forceful strike.
The home team continued to appear slow despite this quick boost in intensity.
On the hour mark, Sergi Roberto met a corner at the near post and lofted a header over the diving custodian and into the far corner to give Barca the lead again, thanks to some poor set-piece defending.
The 20th-place team looked to have been completely overwhelmed by the second goal, but Pena’s gift put them back in the game when he deposited a lofted free-kick at Edgar’s feet, where the defender cheerfully rolled the ball into the open net.
With just over ten minutes remaining, Barca had a fantastic opportunity to win the match, but Ilkay Gundogan and Lewandowski failed to make enough contact with their headers as the goal gaped in front of them.
However, it was Sergi Roberto—making just his fifth appearance of the year—who scored the game-winning goal for the Spanish champions in the 83rd minute, pouncing on Lewandowski’s lofted pass and beating Maximiano.
Five minutes later, in a wildly unpredictable match, Pena made up for his earlier mistake by producing a fantastic reflex save against a header from Iddrisu Baba as his team tripped over the line.
Later, Rafael Benitez’s Celta Vigo lost 3-2 at Villarreal to drop to near the bottom of the table, and Athletic Bilbao moved level on points with fourth-place Atletico Madrid after defeating Las Palmas 1-0.
