Barcelona achieved a late victory over Villarreal 3-1 in Aqar Dar, Saturday, in the fifteenth stage of the Spanish Football Championship.
And he alternately scored the goals of the Catalan team, the Dutch Frankie de Jong (48), Memphis Depay (88) and the Brazilian Philippe Coutinho (90 + 4 from a penalty kick), after Nigerian striker Samuel Chokwueze equalized for Villarreal (76).
Barcelona remained seventh with 23 points, 7 points behind leaders Real Madrid, who meet Seville on Sunday.
The victory is the second for Barcelona locally since its new coach and legend Xavi received his training after the first victory over Espanyol with a clean goal.
Villarreal entered the match and his goal is to compensate for his loss at home against Manchester United 0-2 last Tuesday in the Champions League, and he needs to avoid defeat against the Italian host Atalanta in the last round early next month to guarantee the qualification ticket to the final price. However, he played the match in the absence of his striker, Gerard Moreno, due to a torn hamstring muscle.
On the other hand, the young Moroccan winger Abdel Samad Zalzouli (19 years old) played his first major match in the ranks of Barcelona in a supporting role to the spearhead of Depay.
Villarreal’s series has continued not to beat Barcelona in particular at its Ceramica stadium since October 2007, when they beat it 3-1.
Barcelona’s first chance was when Depay raised the ball from a corner kick followed by Gerard Pique with his head and Villarreal goalkeeper Jeronimo Rulli removed with his fingertips from under the crossbar (4).
Barcelona launched a quick counter-attack, started by playmaker De Jong, and passed it in front of Depay, so the latter bypassed the veteran Villarreal defender and captain Raul Albiol and hit a crawling ball that passed to the side of the right post (8).
Barcelona continued its advantage and Gavi hit a left ball that bounced off the left post (9).
And once again, De Jong passed a ball on a plate to Depay, the latter alone with goalkeeper Rowley, but he shot outside the three woods (19).
The “yellow submarine” team began to gradually enter the atmosphere of the match and took control of it in the last twenty minutes, and it was the most prominent opportunity for him when Pau Torres rose to the ball with his head and the goal was projected in front of him, but he shot over the crossbar (32), and another when the Dutchman Arno Danjuma was alone with German goalkeeper Mark Andre ter Stegen But the latter countered his attempt brilliantly (39).
De Jong opened the scoring at the beginning of the second half, but the referee raised the flag, considering the goal holder offside, but after invoking the VAR technology, it was calculated to advance the Catalan team (50).
The rhythm fell somewhat after the goal, before the substitute striker Chokwueze scored the equalizer when he hit a ball with the tooth of his left foot out of the reach of the Barcelona goalkeeper (75).
Barcelona seemed lost after the goal because Villarreal succeeded in penetrating its defense more than once and Manuel Trigueros almost scored the second goal, but he slowed in shooting (80), and Danjuma was just around the corner from snatching the winning goal after an individual effort, but his shot passed to the side of (84). .
Contrary to the course of the game, Depay manipulated Villarreal’s defense and scored the 88th goal before Coutinho, who came as a substitute in the second half, struck the final blow for the hosts by scoring the third goal from a penalty kick in overtime.
