Thanks to a late goal from Sergi Roberto, Barcelona defeated Almeria 3-2 at home on Wednesday, lifting 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 strikes twice allowed the 20th-placed visitors to pull within one goal of the Catalan giants, but in the end, the home club prevailed.
Both teams had a number of excellent opportunities in the first forty-five minutes as Barcelona methodically attempted to break down the visitors.
When captain Sergi Roberto was left alone in the center of the box, it almost looked like an early set-piece would win the game for the Catalans, but “keeper Luis Maximiano did incredibly well to keep out his headed effort.”
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.
On minute 33, Raphinha opened the score when Araujo’s header from a corner was permitted by the Almeria defense. Maximiano made another excellent save, but he was powerless to stop Raphinha’s fierce rebound.
With the lead now established, Xavi’s team eased off the gas, but not before Robert Lewandowski was offered the ball in the box by a defender, and Maximiano’s outstanding stop kept him from scoring.
Their downfall was ultimately caused by this decrease in effort, 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.
Xavi rang the changes at half-time and sent on Ferran Torres and Jules Kounde in place of Joao Felix and Andreas Christensen.
Torres had an instant impact, working the Portuguese stopper with a firm strike three minutes after half-time.
Despite this injection of pace, the home side still looked sluggish.
On the hour mark, Sergi Roberto met a corner at the near post and lofted a header over the goalkeeper’s dive 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 destroyed by the second goal, but Pena’s gift put them back in the game when he dropped a lofted free-kick at Edgar’s feet, where the defender joyfully slid the ball into the open net.
With little over ten minutes remaining, Barca had a fantastic opportunity to win the match, but Ilkay Gundogan and Lewandowski failed to make enough touch 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 cross and beating Maximiano.
Five minutes later, in a very unpredictable match, Pena made up for his previous mistake by producing a fantastic reaction save against a header from Iddrisu Baba as his team tripped over the line.
Later, Athletic Bilbao hosts Las Palmas to tie fourth-place Atletico Madrid on points, while Rafael Benitez’s Celta Vigo visits Villarreal to close out the bottom of the standings.