Barcelona earned a late 2-1 win at Leganes on Saturday through an Arturo Vidal strike, extending their lead at the top of La Liga.
Match Report
Substitute Arturo Vidal rescued Barcelona with a scrappy late goal as the leaders of LaLiga recovered from an early setback to win 2-1 at bottom side Leganes on Saturday.
Barca boss Ernesto Valverde fielded an attacking line-up that included Lionel Messi, Antoine Griezmann, Luis Suarez and Ousmane Dembele in a 4-2-3-1 formation, but it did not look like paying off for large parts.
Leganes have won just once all season but the underdogs took the lead through Youssef En-Nesyri's sublime early strike, before the champions hit back in the second half.
Suarez dragged his side back on level terms and Vidal scored in fortuitous fashion 11 minutes from time to move Barca three points clear at the summit, the winning goal allowed to stand after a VAR check showed the midfielder was not offside due to the ball reaching him via a Leganes player.
La Liga Standings
Match Events
12' GOAL! Leganes 1-0 Barcelona (En-Nesyri)
Roque Mesa flicks the ball behind the Barca backline towards the right inside channel. En-Nesyri races there ahead of Firpo to collect and then cuts inside to shoot on his left foot. He fires his attempt around Pique and it soars all the way into the top-right corner, leaving Ter Stegen with no chance.
22' CLOSE! Suarez misses a golden chance!
Messi threads the needle to release Suarez in the final third, but the Uruguayan takes a heavy touch and spurns the opening, lifting his effort over the bar amid the presence of the on-rushing Cuellar.
31' CHANCE! Suarez's header stopped by Cuellar
Cuellar denies Barcelona the equaliser by diving to his left to tip Suarez's header past the post. Dembele sends a pinpoint cross into the box for the Uruguayan, who glances his header towards the bottom-right corner. However, the Leganes keeper gets across to make a brilliant fingertip stop.
53' GOAL! Leganes 1-1 Barcelona (Suarez)
Suarez converts with his header on this occasion, guiding it low beneath the body of Cuellar into the back of the net. Messi floats his cross into the box and Suarez peels off his man to have a free header at goal and the forward makes no mistake from six yards.
56' Messi's shot was confiscated by Cuellar
De Jong wins possession on the edge of the Leganes box and he threads a pass through to Messi. The Argentine takes a loose first touch and has to lunge for his strike at goal, failing to beat Cuellar into the bottom-left corner.
79' GOAL! Leganes 1-2 Barcelona (Vidal)
Dembele whips a corner into the box and it takes a deflection before rolling towards Vidal at the near post. He snaps up the opportunity, placing a strike past Cuellar from close range. There's confusion initially as the linesman raises his flag for offside.
However, the referee checks with the VAR and it sees the ball strikes the leg of Perez and not Rakitic before travelling to Vidal to convert. As a result, the referee awards the goal for the visitors.