First Division - Day 29

Valladolid 0 - Barcelona 1

Valladolid: Sergio Asenjo; Pedro López, Luis Prieto (Javier Baraja 66'), Iñaki Bea, Marcos; Alvaro Rubio, Borja; Aguirre (Ogbeche 57'), Canobbio, Jonathan Sesma (Escudero 48'); Goitom. 4-2-3-1.
Barcelona: Víctor Valdés; Puyol, Piqué, Márquez, Sylvinho (Daniel Alves 59'); Xavi, Busquets, Keita; Pedro (Messi 59'), Eto'o, Iniesta (Gudjohnsen 90'). 4-3-3.

Team changes: Valladolid: Sergio Asenjo, Aguirre for Justo Villar, Pedro León / Barcelona: Puyol, Piqué, Busquets, Keita, Pedro for Daniel Alves, Martín Cáceres, Touré Yaya, Messi, Henry.

Goals:
0-1. 40. Eto'o. Picked up Xavi return pass and lobbed shot over head of Asenjo.

Yellow cards: Aguirre 20'.

Leaders Barcelona stay six points clear after beating Valladolid by a single goal on Saturday evening. With players returning from a gruelling international week (Messi for example playing for Argentina in Bolivia at 3.600 metres on Wednesday), and a Champions League tie on the horizon, Guardiola rested several of his key men.

Even so they had the better of the opening minutes, Sergio Asenjo (returning in goal after an injury lay-off) keeping out Pedro and Eto'o early on. Iniesta and Xavi fired shots over the top, but with five minutes to go to the break Eto'o ran on to Xavi's lofted pass to lob the keeper and open the scoring.

Iniesta brought another good save out of Asenjo before the break and Eto'o shot over the bar soon after the restart, but Piqué did well to block Escudero's shot with Valdés beaten. The visiting keeper had little work to do though, and Barça could have increased the lead had Iniesta and Alves been able to beat Asenjo later on.