Barcelona bagged the three points at El Madrigal as they moved up to seventh place on the league table.
Barcelona defeated Villarreal with a 3-1 result in their league game on Saturday. The Catalans bounced back from their disappointing draw against Benfica to celebrate their second La Liga victory under Xavi Hernandez.
Xavi’s Barcelona fights until the last minute!
Barcelona quickly gained possession and managed to create several chances in the first half. Memphis Depay missed a one-on-one chance against Geronimo Rulli that could have opened the scoring for Barcelona early on.
The Catalans continued to attack in the second half and quickly got their first goal of the night. Following a cross from the left-hand side of the box, Frenkie de Jong scored for Barcelona in the 48th minute.
Villarreal started their efforts to equalize the game while Barcelona preferred to stay in their own half. Samuel Chukwueze scored the equalizer for the hosts in the 76th minute.
The Yellow Submarines pushed to get the match-winner in the last ten minutes. However, Depay ended their hopes with a late winner after dribbling past the keeper in a one-on-one. Xavi’s side kept on attacking and got a penalty in the last minute of the extra time. Philippe Coutinho put the ball into the bottom left corner of the net to score his second goal of the season.
Barcelona move up to seventh place on the league table, while Villarreal remain in the 12th spot.
The Catalans will now prepare for their next league game against Real Betis on December 4.
Player Ratings
Villarreal: Rulli (6); Pedraza (6), Torres (5), Albiol (6), Foyth (5); Gomez (6), Parejo (7), Capoue (6), Pino (5); Danjuma (7), Trigueros (7).
Bench: Raba (5), Chukwueze (7), Estupinan (5).
Barcelona: Ter Stegen (6); Araujo (7), Pique (6), Garcia (5), Alba (6); Gonzalez (7), Busquets (6), De Jong (8); Azzalzouli (7), Depay (7), Gavi (6).
Bench: Mingueza (6), Dembele (6), Coutinho (7).
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