Barcelona Reclaims LaLiga's Second Spot with Valencia Comeback

Barcelona, marking Xavi’s first game after reversing his decision to leave, secured a comeback win over Valencia. The final score was Barcelona 4, Valencia 2. The key highlights of the match included goals by López in the 22nd minute, Lewandowski in the 49th, 82nd and the additional 3rd minute, and Duro and Pepelu (PEN) in the 27th and 38th minutes respectively. Valencia's goalkeeper Mamardashvili was sent off in the first half for handling the ball outside his area.

Fermín López got the first goal for Barcelona by meeting Raphinha’s cross from the left with a guided header. The match levelled with Valencia's Hugo Duro capitalising on Marc-André ter Stegen’s botched clearance. Things worsened for Barcelona as Ronald Araújo conceded a penalty for tackling Peter González, allowing Pepelu to bypass Ter Stegen.

A turning point transpired when Mamardashvili was removed from the game. Robert Lewandowski brought the match back into balance shortly after the interval by sending İlkay Gündoğan’s corner kick to the near post beyond the reach of Mamardashvili’s substitute, Jaume Doménech.
Lewandowski produced another goal in the final stage before finishing his hat-trick with a sublime free kick deep into extra time. With this victory, Barcelona overtook Girona for second place in LaLiga, while Valencia lost more ground in their bid for a European spot, now four points away from sixth place.