Robert Lewandowski rescues Barcelona against Valencia

Robert Lewandowski scored his league-leading 13th goal in the dying minutes of the match as Barcelona won 1-0 over Valencia at Mestalla.

Despite playing some decent football in the first-half, the Catalans were unable to convert the handful of opportunities they created.

Barcelona thought they were on the verge of scoring the first goal late in the second half as Pedri played the ball through the middle with Ferran Torres only needing to guide the ball to goal. As has been his season in front of goal, Ferran whiffed only for the ball to ricochet off his supporting leg. The ball hung in the air but an oncoming Raphinha skied his attempt.

The referee added six minutes of stoppage time as Barcelona looked headed for a disappointing draw to cap off another disappointing week.

With three of the six minutes gone, Raphinha seemed to have sent in another hopeful cross. Lewandowski stretched his leg out with the contact being more than enough to get the ball past the Valencia goalkeeper and into the back of the net.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Lewandowski rescued three points for a Barcelona side who desperately needed a positive result following the midweek loss in the Champions League to Bayern Munich.

The win was important as demonstrated by the jubilant celebration by the players once the final whistle blew. They pulled out a win after it looked like they were going to have to settle for a draw and stayed three points behind Real Madrid in the race for La Liga.

However, the win did not come without some consequences.

Marcos Alonso replaced Eric Garcia in the first half as the young center-back picked up an injury. To make matters worse, Jules Kounde was forced off in the second half — replaced by Gerard Pique — after picking up an injury of his own.

He was seen on the pitch celebrating with the rest of his teammates, which hopefully, for Barcelona’s sake, it means the injury isn’t too severe.

Barcelona’s next game is midweek in their final Champions League game of the season away to Viktoria Plzen. In La Liga, they host Almeria in one of the last games before the World Cup break.