Barcelona (Spain) : Two goals by Paco Alcacer helped FC Barcelona beat Sevilla FC 2-1 and keep them at the top of the La Liga standings in what was Lionel Messi’s 600th match for the club.
Barcelona are now on 31 points, four points ahead of second placed Valencia. Barcelona dominated the game throughout the first half and much of the second, but allowed Sevilla to react in the early minutes of the second half.
Barca moved fast from the start, with Messi largely leading the way, though without contributing a goal.
Accompanied by the usual suspects Messi and Luis Suarez, Paco Alcacer slotted the ball into the net to give Barcelona a 1-0 lead after 23 minutes.
Sevilla was looking better when it came out for the second half and a somewhat more sluggish Barca saw the game moving closer to its area.
Then at in the 58th minute, Sevilla’s Guido Pizarro blasted a header for a score, making it 1-1, still anybody’s game.
But in the 65th minute Alcacer proved himself to be the hero of the match and scored his second goal to give Barcelona a 2-1 win.
Earlier, Valencia continued their winning streak with a 3-0 win over Leganes.
This is the seventh win in a row for Valencia, which holds the second spot in the league table with 27 points.
Leganes, meanwhile, was handed their second straight defeat in the La Liga on Saturday, and had to settle for the eighth spot with 17 points, pending other results.
Despite not creating many scoring chances in the first half, Valencia’s Daniel Parejo did manage to break the deadlock with a free kick in the 14th minute.
Five minutes from the half-time whistle, Claudio Beauvue squandered Leganes’ best chance to draw level.
Valencia had many chances in the second half, including Gonsalo Guedes’ shot into the post in the 55th minute.
Within an 11-minute stretch, Valencia tripled its lead, thanks to a header from Rodrigo that found the back of the net in the 71st minute and a penalty successfully converted by Santi Mina.
In another encounter, Ghanaian midfielder Thomas Partey scored a last-gasp goal to give Atletico Madrid a 1-0 victory over Deportivo La Coruna to get the club back on track.
Atletico rarely posed a threat to Deportivo’s goalkeeper during Saturday’s match, which seemed destined to end in yet another draw for Diego Simeone’s men.
Thomas, however, scored the winner two minutes into stoppage time to save his team once again.
The 24-year-old had scored the second-half equalizer for Atletico against Qarabag in a UEFA Champions League match played on October 31 that ended 1-1.
Atletico finally got a win after three consecutive 1-1 draws – against Elche in Copa del Rey, Villarreal in La Liga and Qarabag.
With the win, Atletico has climbed provisionally to the third spot in the La Liga with 23 points (behind Barcelona and Valencia), while Deportivo is 16th with 11 points..
