BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Barcelona survived a tricky first half to beat Valencia 4-2 with the help of a second half hat trick from Robert Lewandowski and a red card to Valencia goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili on Monday.
On a rainy night in Catalonia, the home side dominated possession but was behind at the break due to two defensive errors.
Fermín López put Barcelona ahead with a lovely glancing header midway through the first half.
Valencia levelled just five minutes later thanks to a woeful intervention from keeper Marc Ter Stegen. He intercepted a long ball 25 yards from his goal but he tried to be too fancy and Hugo Duro easily dispossessed him and ran the ball into the empty net.
Before halftime, Valencia took the lead thanks to another elementary mistake. Ronald Araújo’s mistimed tackle felled Peter Federico in the box and Pepelu coolly converted the spot kick.
‘The Blue Angels,’ filmed for IMAX, puts viewers in the ‘box’ with the elite flying squad
Surfers converge on Hainan for championships
Xi Urges Actions to Translate Community with Shared Future for Mankind into Reality
Paris 2024 Olympics to feature 10,000 torchbearers
Kosovo prepares a new draft law on renting prison cells to Denmark after the first proposal failed
Zhang regains UFC strawweight gold, Adesanya dethroned
Swiss snowboarders expect Beijing 2022 to be safe and great
U.S. chip company Micron settles IP lawsuit with Chinese firm
Philippines blames China for loss of giant clams in disputed shoal and urges environmental inquiry
Boeing delivers B787 Dreamliner to Juneyao Airlines