Barcelona 3-1 Celta Vigo: Bittersweet night as Auba soars but Araujo suffers head blow
The Barcelona defender was taken to hospital in an ambulance for checks and he has concussion
Until Ronald Araujo went off with a concussion, things were going just fine for Barcelona.
With Champions League qualification in the bag, Xavi decided to experiment with a 3-3-1-2 formation and even though it wasn’t particularly successful, his team were dominating.
Memphis Depay and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang put the Catalans ahead and the latter netted again just after the break to give his team complete control.
Iago Aspas pulled one back - as he tends to do against Barcelona - but then Araujo clashed heads with Gavi and went down.
An ambulance drove onto the Camp Nou pitch and he was put on a stretcher and taken to hospital for tests.
It dampened proceedings, on an otherwise solid night which takes Barcelona one step closer to reaching their objective of finishing second.
After a turgid opening half hour, Memphis broke the deadlock when Ousmane Dembele left Barcelona target Javi Galan and Cervi for dead and crossed for the Dutchman. It wasn’t a clean finish, but Memphis managed to score for his 12th goal of the campaign.
Aubameyang followed suit after reacting brilliantly to a deflected cross, firing in an untidy but effective strike off the ground and into the far corner.
The formation, which saw Jordi Alba play in a midfield three when Barcelona had the ball, was used as an experiment by Xavi and also to cover for the absent Sergio Busquets.
Riqui Puig came on for the quiet Ferran Torres at the break and Barca switched back to a 4-3-3. It paid instant dividends with Dembele crossing for Aubameyang to cooly dispatch.
That was that, until Aspas capitalised on a Ter Stegen and Araujo mix-up to strike, and then the accident happened.
Ansu Fati got half an hour and showed some bright moments, and Barcelona closed out their penultimate home league match with ease - but also unease, as they wait for Araujo news.
