Although Messi’s second half strike, his 450th goal for the Club, can’t save Barcelona from defeat, they remain leaders in the league.
Meanwhile, Messi reached yet another milestone for Barça on Sunday night.
Barcelona dominated possession from start to finish of Sunday night’s game versus Valencia at Camp Nou and just missing out on several sterling scoring chances.
However, it was the visitors who were a model of efficiency.
They found the net on their only two shots on target in the first half before hanging on late for a 2–1 victory.
Lionel Messi drew one back for Barça just past the hour mark — his 450th career blaugrana goal.
But Los Che, bolstered by stingy defense and sublime goalkeeping, managed to come away with the win.
The loss is FC Barcelona’s third straight in La Liga — their second in a row at home.
Although they are now even with Atlético Madrid on points, Barça remain the front-runner on superior goal differential.
The Catalans fell behind in the 24th minute when Guilherme Siqueira took a feed from Andrés Gomes.
He fired off the foot of a sliding Ivan Rakitic and past FCB goalkeeper Claudio Bravo for an own goal.
It was the fifth time this season in La Liga — the ninth time across all competitions — that FCB had fallen behind 1–0 at home.
Barça eventually came back to win all of those games, however, and, in fact, had never fallen behind 2–0.
But that’s exactly what happened in first half injury time when Santi Mina struck from Bravo’s right to double the Valencia lead.
Barça led Valencia in possession by more than two-to-one in the first half but Neymar, Luis Suárez, and Messi (twice) were all afforded exceptional opportunities and came up empty.
With the league lead appearing to be slipping through Barça’s fingers, they came out of the dressing room firing on all cylinders.
The hard charging Catalans were not going down without a fight though.
After ratcheting up the pressure in Valencia’s end, Messi finally broke through in the 62nd, one-timing a feed from Jordi Alba and slotting past Diego Alves from just beyond the penalty spot.
It was his 450th football career goal for FC Barcelona and his 500th overall including 50 for the Argentina national team.
But in order to keep Messi’s newest milestone from becoming a mere footnote, Barça would need more.
Rakitic was close to drawing Barça back level in the 75th, but his turnaround shot from inside the area was deftly swatted away by the diving Alves.
Neymar blasted a loose ball in the 83rd that was smothered in front and sent out of bounds for a corner kick that would bear no fruit.
In the 89th, Gerard Piqué had only the goalkeeper to beat from the top of the six-yard box but fired wide.
LUIS ENRIQUE REMAINS STEADFAST, PRAISES PLAYERS FOLLOWING DEFEAT
The FC Barcelona manager was his same old optimistic self after a loss that sees league lead trimmed to the bare minimum.
Says Luis Enrique: “The league is still in our own… por fcbarcelona
Faced with perhaps the most adversity in his almost two full seasons as FC Barcelona’s manager, Luis Enrique Martínez continues to stay the course.
He keeps the steadiest of keels and exhibiting his trademark sanguineness, an uncompromising optimism where most other men in his position would be frantically grabbing for alternate explanations.
“These are games that are very difficult to play and the team came up with a magnificent response.”
He said this after FC Barcelona came up just short in a 2–1 defeat to Valencia on Sunday night.
“We played a very complete first half, but we were unlucky and we needed it to win the game.”
The untrained eye could see that luck — or a lack thereof — was a major factor once again, invisible yet all too present. Luis Enrique, nonetheless, knows he has no control over it.
“I remain positive about our level of play, we were very superior, but not so effective,” he said.
That was after a game in which Barça managed one goal despite seven shots on target while Valencia scored twice on just three shots on target.
“We had very good stretches in the second half but it wasn’t to be.”
Here are the highlights of his post-game press conference:
“Sometimes that’s what happens at football. You have to know how to lose.”
“Now we have an incredible challenge in front of us. If we win the five remaining games we will be the champions.”
“I’ve never seen Camp Nou so behind the team in the situation that we are in.”
“I congratulate my players for the way they have handled the adversity. We just have to get back up.
“We depend on ourselves. We know how big of a challenge it is.”
“Today I think it was a difficult situation, but we knew we had to play a very good game, and we dominated all facets of play.”
“This is the path forward. We can’t win every single game by playing anyway we want, we have to have order and we have to be organized.”
“Today there’s not a single Barça supporters who is not proud of the team.”
“If there’s one team that’s capable of picking itself up it’s this Barça.”
“Today is not a day to criticize my players, but to praise them.”
“The players have taught everyone a lesson about how to approach a game like this. We were trying to tie the game until the 93rd minute.”
“It would have been very unfair to take out any of the players. They were playing very good game.”