If you are not a member yet, you can sign up here

First Division - Day 17

Valladolid 1 - Barcelona 3

Valladolid: Dani Hernández; Rukavina, Sereno, Marc Valiente, Balenziaga; Lluis Sastre (Javi Baraja 79'), Víctor Pérez; Omar Ramos, Óscar González, Alberto Bueno (Rubén Peña 65'); Manucho (Javi Guerra 74'). 4-2-3-1.
Barcelona: Víctor Valdés; Dani Alves, Piqué, Mascherano, Jordi Alba; Xavi, Busquets, Thiago (Iniesta 83'); Pedro (Tello 90'), Messi, Alexis (David Villa 76'). 4-3-3.

Goals:
0-1. 43. Xavi. Slid ball in to net from close to goal after Jordi Alba passed across.
0-2. 58. Messi. Picked up Xavi back-heel pass and ran on to shoot in off far post.
1-2. 89. Javi Guerra. On the follow up after Víctor Valdés saved his first header.
1-3. 92. Tello. Ran on to steer shot past Dani Hernández on quick counter-attack.

Yellow cards: Alberto Bueno 25', Sereno 35', Thiago 39', Sastre 52', Oscar González 66'.

Barcelona restored their nine point lead at the top of the table after a 1-3 win at Valladolid on Sunday evening. Assistant coach Jordi Roura has taken over on the bench whilst Tito Vilanova recovers from his cancer operation, but otherwise it was business as usual as the Catalans took their points tally this season to a record 49 out of a possible 51. Alexis missed a couple of early chances and Messi curled a free kick against the post before Xavi got on the end of a Jordi Alba cross to open the scoring shortly before half time. And after the restart Pedro headed against the woodwork and Messi uncharacteristically fired a shot wide of the target before making up for it with his side's second just a minute or so later. Up to that point Valladolid's only reply had been a possible penalty appeal for hands when Jordi Alba blocked a header from Manucho, and although Javi Guerra did get one back for the locals with a couple of minutes to go after Valdés could only push out his first header, substitute Tello wrapped things up in injury time after a long gallop from midfield.