A heavily rotated Barcelona team took to the pitch in Valladolid on Saturday, sandwiched between the two legs of their Champions League semi-final against Inter. The league leaders might have expected an easy ride against La Liga's bottom club, already relegated ahead of kick-off. But that may have taken the pressure off the hosts, who went ahead inside just six minutes through Ivan Sanchez.
Barcelona were frustrated in the first half, but things changed when Hansi Flick introduced Raphinha and Frenkie de Jong at break. Raphinha's 31st goal of the season soon levelled things up when a stray punch from goalkeeper Andre Ferreira fell at the Brazilian's feet. Fermin Lopez then put the Catalans 2-1 up an hour in, taking up a position at the edge of the box for Gerard Martin's cutback.
Hector Fort hit the post and Lamine Yamal, a first half injury replacement, had an effort cleared off the line towards the end. But Marc-Andre ter Stegen also needed to be sharp on his long-awaited return to keep out a would-be Valladolid equaliser with a fine save. The lead has at least temporarily grown to seven points on Real Madrid, who host Celta Vigo in their weekend game on Sunday
GOAL rates Barcelona's players from Estadio Jose Zorrilla...
