Barça scrapes another win

After some of the goal-fests earlier in the season it should probably be no surprise that Barça is capable of far less spectacular results too. For the second match in a row, Barcelona won by just 1-0, this time thanks to Keita in the 42nd minute – set up by Leo Messi.

Barça struggled to find their feet for the first 20 minutes but when they did they were certainly effective – unfortunately so was Zaragoza’s goal keeper.

Thirty minutes in it looked like Barcelona had broken the deadlock, but Keita’s goal was incorrectly judged to be offside. Three minutes before the break though, Keita did score the only goal of the match. Victor Valdes was back in action after a lay-off through injury, but really he had little to do; when Zaragoza did break through, Valdes was there to stop the ball.

In the second half Barça dominated possession, and both Pique and Bojan got close to adding another goal to Barça’s tally. However, it wasn’t to be and when the final whistle blew it was just a single goal scored but three more points on the league table. Barça’s next match is against Arsenal on Tuesday. While it is good news that Victor Valdes is back in goal, it will be without Carles Puyol, who can make a huge difference to defence.

After Barça’s 2-1 loss at Emirates, they need just 1-0 to go through to the next round. Fingers crossed that they can do that – or more.

1-0, Keita (min 42)

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
1	Barcelona	27	24	2	1	78	13	74
2	Real Madrid	27	21	4	2	65	20	67
3	Valencia	27	16	6	5	42	28	54
4	Villarreal	27	15	5	7	46	29	50
5	Athletic Bilbao	27	13	2	12	42	38	41
6	Espanyol	27	13	1	13	35	39	40
7	Atlético Madrid	27	11	5	11	39	35	38
8	Sevilla	27	11	5	11	41	42	38
9	Real Sociedad	26	11	2	13	37	42	35
10	Mallorca	27	10	4	13	28	37	34
11	Getafe	27	9	6	12	36	41	33
12	Levante	27	9	4	14	28	38	31
13	Racing Santander	27	7	9	11	25	39	30
14	Osasuna	27	7	8	12	27	32	29
15	Sporting Gijón	27	6	10	11	25	34	28
16	Deportivo	26	6	10	9	21	35	28
17	Zaragoza	27	6	9	12	24	39	27
18	Hércules	27	7	5	15	25	41	26
19	Almería	27	5	10	12	28	45	25
20	Málaga	27	6	5	16	34	59	23