Villarreal 3 - Barcelona 1

Villarreal: Viera; Javi Venta, Fuentes, Cygan, Capdevila; Marcos Senna, Bruno; Cazorla, Cani (Angel 90'), Pires (Matias Fernández 69'); Guille Franco (Tomasson 80'). 4-2-3-1.
Barcelona: Víctor Valdés; Oleguer (Giovani 46'), Milito, Puyol, Abidal; Iniesta, Xavi, Deco (Gudjohnsen 71'); Messi, Bojan Krkic (Sylvinho 80'), Henry. 4-3-3.

Team changes: Villarreal: Bruno, Cani for Angel, Rossi / Barça: Bojan Krkic for Ronaldinho.

Goals:
1-0. 03. Cazorla. Picked up Guille Franco back-heel and scored from wide angle.
2-0. 13. Marcos Senna (penalty). After Abidal tripped Pires inside area.
2-1. 24. Bojan Krkic. Ran on to Messi through ball and shot low in off post.
3-1. 35. Marcos Senna (penalty). After Milito pushed over Pires inside area.

Villarreal beat Barcelona 3-1 on Saturday night to move ahead of their opponents up to second place. The Catalans had not been beaten in the league since their last visit to the Madrigal stadium almost six months ago, but they fell behind in only the third minute when Cazorla picked up a deft back-heel return pass from Guille Franco to beat Valdés from a wide angle. And Cani fired a long shot over before Marcos Senna made it two from the penalty spot after Abidal had tripped Pires.

Frank Rijkaard had left a tired Ronaldinho back home after his late arrival from international duty, giving a first start to 17 year old Bojan Krkic. And after Messi had gone close a couple of times, the Spanish youth international striker picked up a Messi pass to beat Viera and become the youngest Barça player to score in the league (and the third youngest of all time behind Xisco Nadal and Mena). Before the half time whistle though Villarreal restored the two goal lead, Senna scoring a second penalty after Milito had bundled over Pires.

Rijkaard went for broke at half time, bringing on Giovani Dos Santos for Oleguer, but his side were lucky not to go further behind when Pires, Cazorla, Javi Venta and Mati Fernández all failed to covert rapid breakaways. Giovani headed over and Iniesta had another header saved by Viera late on, but there was no way past a well ordered defence, and to add injury to insult (!), Deco limped off with a groin strain to join an ever growing list of players who will miss the next few games.