Barca survive Valencia scare

Barcelona survived a late penalty to beat Valencia 2-1 on Saturday and set a new unbeaten record in La Liga.

See how the match unfolded at Camp Nou with our liveblog!

Philippe Coutinho helped himself to two assists as Barca took another big step towards the title, going a 39th League game unbeaten, despite Dani Parejo's spot-kick with just three minutes remaining.

Coutinho replaced the injured Ivan Rakitic and Nelson Semedo made way for Paulinho as the Catalans scrapped the 4-4-2 for a 4-3-3 in their first game since throwing away a 4-1 lead against Roma in the Champions League quarter-finals.

However, Ousmane Dembele still couldn't get a look-in, despite the big-money winger being fully fit for this eastern Spanish encounter.

Valencia, meanwhile, were flying high in fourth, with five straight wins in the bag, although they had only beaten Barca twice since 2008.

Curiously, this was a repeat of only two seasons ago, when the Blaugrana were knocked out by Atletico Madrid and went on to lose 2-1 at home to Los Che.

Barca were looking to break Real Sociedad's 34-year record in La Liga and go a 39th consecutive game unbeaten, and they made the perfect start when Coutinho's through ball was poked home by former Liverpool teammate Suarez.

However, Valencia had enough chances to at least pull a goal back. Gonzalo Guedes had a string of snapshots, one of which Marc-Andre ter Stegen tipped over, while Rodrigo Moreno's point-blank volley was turned away by the German and Santi Mina nodded a free header wide.

The hosts would make Marcelino's side pay for their profligacy just six minutes into the second half, when Coutinho's corner was headed in by Samuel Umtiti.

Opportunities continued to present themselves at a half-full Camp Nou, the best of the bunch falling to Lionel Messi, whose sensational scissor kick from the edge of the box flew just over Neto, the goalkeeper then scrambling Andres Iniesta's overhead effort off the line.

However, Los Che were dealt a lifeline in the latter stages when substitute Dembele wiped out Jose Luis Gaya, and Dani Parejo promptly squirmed the penalty past Ter Stegen.

Injury time could've seen Barca go out of sight or Valencia inflict another comeback, but Neto somehow denied Denis one-on-one, before Simone Zaza nodded a cross desperately wide from a yard out.

Barcelona 2-1 Valencia

Suarez 15, Umtiti 51 (B) Parejo pen 87 (V)

Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Sergi Roberto (Semedo 90), Pique, Umtiti, Alba; Paulinho, Sergio Busquets, Iniesta (Denis 84); Messi, Suarez, Coutinho (Dembele 79)

Valencia: Neto; Vezo, Garay, Gabriel, Gaya; Soler, Parejo, Kondogbia, Guedes (Andreas Pereira 69); Rodrigo (Zaza 80) Mina (Vietto 71)

Referee: Del Cerro Grande

La Liga - Club News