Barcelona beaten by Celta Vigo in a seven-goal La Liga game

Spanish champions Barcelona missed the chance to go top of La Liga after losing 4-3 away to Celta Vigo in the seventh round. The Catalans were stunned in the first half, conceding three goals before the break, and their comeback in the second half fell just short.

Lionel Messi was still injured and could not take part. Barcelona have enough quality players to cover for the Argentinian, but on this occasion several of them were well below their usual level, and the absence of their talisman was felt at both ends of the pitch.

Luis Enrique's side conceded all of Celta's goals through major defensive errors. Barcelona lacked concentration, and it told in the 22nd minute, when Sisto took advantage of a poor clearance to score. 1-0. Ten minutes later Iago Aspas finished a fine counter-attack, and just two minutes after that French defender Jérémy Mathieu turned the ball into his own net after a failed tackle. The home side had punished Barcelona's poor defending with three goals in 12 minutes.

Barcelona captain Andrés Iniesta replaced Rafinha at half-time, making his 600th appearance for the club. His influence on the game was obvious almost immediately, as Barcelona began to control possession and move the ball forward with more purpose. Gerard Piqué began to push forward more often, and the defender pulled one back with a header in the 58th minute from Iniesta's excellent cross.

Six minutes later Neymar scored from the penalty spot. 3-2. The comeback seemed to be on. But another lapse in concentration cost Barcelona dearly. In the 77th minute goalkeeper ter Stegen kicked the ball against Hernández's head and it went into the Barcelona net for a fourth time. Even at 4-2 down, the Catalans kept chasing a point until the final whistle.

Piqué scored again three minutes before the end of normal time, but that was the last goal of the match and Barcelona couldn’t take the 1st place in the league, dropping to fourth behind Atlético Madrid, Real Madrid and Sevilla.

Background

The match was played at Balaídos on 2 October 2016, and it was the second season in a row that Celta had beaten Barcelona at home in La Liga. In the corresponding fixture the previous season, Celta had won 4-1. The Galician side were coached by Eduardo Berizzo, and their first-half goals came from Pione Sisto in the 22nd minute, Iago Aspas in the 31st and a Jérémy Mathieu own goal in the 33rd. Barcelona's replies came from Gerard Piqué in the 58th and 87th minutes and a Neymar penalty in the 64th, while Pablo Hernández's goal arrived in the 77th.

How Celta's season went

The win over Barcelona was not Celta's only notable result of the campaign. In the Copa del Rey quarter-finals in January 2017 they knocked out Real Madrid 4-3 on aggregate, winning 2-1 at the Santiago Bernabéu and drawing 2-2 at Balaídos, before going out in the semi-finals to Alavés, who won the tie 1-0 on aggregate with a late Édgar Méndez goal in the second leg.

In Europe they went even further. Celta beat Genk 4-3 on aggregate in the Europa League quarter-finals to reach their first major European semi-final, where they met Manchester United. Marcus Rashford's free kick gave United a 1-0 win at Balaídos on 4 May 2017, and the second leg at Old Trafford ended 1-1. Marouane Fellaini headed United in front, Facundo Roncaglia equalised late on, and John Guidetti missed a chance with the final kick that would have sent Celta through on away goals. In La Liga, Celta finished 13th.

How Barcelona's season ended

Barcelona finished second in La Liga, three points behind champions Real Madrid. In the Champions League they produced a famous 6-1 win over Paris Saint-Germain on 8 March 2017 to overturn a 4-0 first-leg defeat, before going out to Juventus in the quarter-finals. On 1 March 2017 Luis Enrique announced that he would leave at the end of the season, and the season closed with the Copa del Rey final on 27 May 2017, a 3-1 win over Alavés that gave Barcelona the trophy for a third year in a row.