Narrow victory for Barça against Valencia

FC Barcelona narrowly scraped a victory at the Mestalla in Valencia last night with a second half goal from Lionel Messi.

Barça looked rather scrappy throughout the match which was partly due to the state of the grass; it was dry thanks to windy conditions and hadn’t been watered. Barça was also missing Puyol in defence, although reserve keeper Pinto was put to good use.

The result puts Barça temporarily 10 points ahead of Real Madrid, who are playing tonight. it’s a big week for Barça with Zaragoza on Saturday night and then comes crunch time when Arsenal visits the Nou Camp on Tuesday.

0-1 Messi (min 76)

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
1	Barcelona	26	23	2	1	77	13	71
2	Real Madrid	25	19	4	2	55	19	61
3	Valencia	26	15	6	5	40	27	51
4	Villarreal	26	15	5	6	45	26	50
5	Espanyol	26	13	1	12	35	38	40
6	Athletic Bilbao	26	12	2	12	40	38	38
7	Sevilla	26	11	5	10	41	40	38
8	Atlético Madrid	26	10	5	11	36	34	35
9	Real Sociedad	26	11	2	13	37	42	35
10	Mallorca	26	10	4	12	27	35	34
11	Getafe	26	9	6	11	36	39	33
12	Racing Santander	25	7	8	10	23	35	29
13	Levante	26	8	4	14	27	38	28
14	Deportivo	26	6	10	9	21	35	28
15	Zaragoza	26	6	9	11	24	38	27
16	Osasuna	26	6	8	12	26	32	26
17	Hércules	26	7	5	14	24	39	26
18	Sporting Gijón	26	5	10	11	23	34	25
19	Málaga	25	6	5	14	34	51	23
20	Almería	25	4	9	12	25	43	21