Alaves claimed their second La Liga scalp of the season as they condemned Barcelona to a shock 2-1 defeat at Camp Nou on Saturday.
Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez were named substitutes, meaning Paco Alcacer was free to make his Barca bow up top and Neymar appeared for the first time as an Olympic gold medallist. Jasper Cillessen also debuted between the sticks, Jeremy Mathieu surprisingly started in central defence and Aleix Vidal and Lucas Digne came into the full-back positions.
Barca dominated possession in the first half, but Luis Enrique’s decision to sanction seven changes possibly affected their rhythm as the Catalans’ play was too slow and predictable.
Indeed, their first chance didn’t fall until midway through, when Aleix Vidal’s shot from a short free kick was tipped over the bar by Real Madrid loanee Fernando Pacheco.
Their lack of cutting edge was duly punished as Deyverson got in front of the normally-reliable Javier Mascherano and met a cross from the right, which he poked past Cillessen.
Neymar was the only member of MSN starting in Catalonia, and he should’ve scored straight from the restart, when he was picked out by a square ball at the far post but couldn’t guide his diving header on target.
Barca’s below-par efforts in the final third left Alcacer a passenger until the end of the half as the striker laid the ball off to Ivan Rakitic in the penalty area with seconds to spare, but the midfielder could only send his effort wide.
However, the champions flew out of the traps for the second period and equalised through Mathieu, who climbed highest to head home a wrongly-awarded corner, wrongly rewarded in that replays showed Arda Turan had touched the ball out.
Mathieu then ought to have bagged his brace as another corner fell to him in the penalty area, yet he blasted the ball off-target from a couple of yards out in a true, defender’s finish.
Nonetheless, Alaves were no pushovers and took advantage of more poor Barca defending for a memorable winner as Mascherano complacently attempted to clear the ball in his own box, allowing Ibai Gomez to nip in, fire the ball across Cillessen and into the bottom-right corner.
Barca frantically tried to get the ball forward and force the issue, even bringing on superstars Messi, Suarez and Iniesta, but former Valencia defender Mauricio Pellegrino marshalled his Alaves troops – 18 of whom only arrived over the summer – in a way that they seemed impossible to break down.
Mathieu drove the ball low and hard on target from a corner but failed to beat Pacheco, while Iniesta went for broke from some way out, the ball though only flashing across Pacheco's goal.
As the match entered three minutes of injury time, greeted by a chorus of boos from home fans hoping for more on the clock, Digne’s cutback was met by an unmarked Messi, but he sent his finish wide as Alaves followed up a 1-1 draw at Atletico Madrid on the opening day in sensational style.
Barcelona 1-2 Alaves
Mathieu 46 (B) Deyverson 39, Ibai 64 (A)
Barcelona: Cillessen; Vidal, Mathieu, Mascherano, Digne; Busquets, Rakitic, Denis (Messi 60); Arda (Iniesta 64), Alcacer (Suarez 66), Neymar
Alaves: Pacheco; Femenia (Vigaray 74), Laguardia, Alexis, Theo, Garcia; Torres, Llorente, Ibai (Camarasa 79); Deyverson, Edgar (Espinoza 70)
Referee: Melero Lopez
