Barcelona 2-1 Alaves: Messi saves the day after early Camp Nou scare
Guidetti gave Alaves the first half lead
Suarez levelled and Messi scored the winner
Barcelona were made to work hard as they came from behind to beat Alaves 2-1 and extend their unbeaten run in La Liga.
FCB
2 ________________ 1
ALA
LINE UP
FC Barcelona
Ter Stegen, Semedo (Sergi Roberto, 52'), Piqué, Umtiti, Digne (Jordi Alba, 52'), Rakitic, Paulinho, Iniesta, Messi, Suárez y Coutinho (Alcácer, 65').
Deportivo Alavés
Pacheco, Alexis, Maripán, Laguardia, Duarte (Demirovic, 89'), Ibai, Medrán, Wakaso, Hernán Pérez (Pedraza, 63') Guidetti (Munir, 75') y Sobrino.
Goles
0-1, Guidetti (23'). 1-1, Luis Suárez (72'). 2-1, Leo Messi (84').
Árbitro
Ignacio Iglesias Villanueva (colegio gallego). T.A.: Rubén Duarte (27'), Wakaso (22').
Incidencias
Partido correspondiente a la jornada 21 de LaLiga Santander disputado en el Camp Nou ante 62.369 espectadores.
John Guidetti opened the scoring in the first half but second half efforts from Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi helped Barca turn the game around.
The Catalans restored their 11-point lead at the top of the league with the win.
Barca lost to Alaves last season when Luis Enrique made wholesale changes to his side, but Ernesto Valverde resisted the temptation to over rotate.
He handed Philippe Coutinho but stuck with Messi, Suarez and Andres Iniesta, too, leaving Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba on the bench.
Lucas Digne, starting in place of Alba, had the first big chance, firing wide with a low drive after six minutes.
Barca set up camp in the Alaves half early on but the visitors were a threat on the break. Marc-Andre ter Stegen had to be alert to foil one Basque counter-attack.
Despite the Barca pressure, Fernando Pacheco had little to do. He made his first save in the 21st minute from a Suarez header.
Moments later, Alaves broke again, taking the lead through Guidetti. Samuel Umtiti couldn’t catch the Swede, who got fortunate, slipping as he struck the ball and deceiving ter Stegen.
The pattern of the game continued but Barca didn’t create a great deal. Iniesta shot over and Coutinho saw a good chance well-blocked.
Messi, strangely out of sorts, saw one free-kick punched over by Pacheco and another one, just before half time, tipped on to the post.
Valverde didn’t wait to make changes and replace Digne and Nelson Semedo with Alba and Sergi Roberto in the second half.
It gave Barca more width and the chance began to come. A fine Messi pass for Suarez saw the Uruguayan’s shot deflected wide by Pacheco.
Paulinho had a chance cleared off the line before Barca eventually equalised.
Iniesta beat two men and stood the ball up at the far post for Suarez, whose volley found the back of the net, maybe via a deflection of Gerard Pique.
Messi then won the match in the 84th minute, curling him a free-kick after substitute Paco Alcacer had been fouled.
Alaves then has a penalty appeal turned down late on when the ball appeared to strike Samuel Umtiti’s hand, while Messi missed a good chance to make it three.
