Defensive lapses and missed opportunities haunt Barcelona in 1-1 draw with Valencia

"Goles que no metes, goles que te hacen"

Roughly translated, the cliché basically says goals you fail to convert, will be scored against you.

That's what happened to Barcelona as they dropped two more points in a 1-1 draw away to Valencia.

The Catalan side started slowly in the opening 15 minutes of the half but managed to gain control after that and were the better team, creating a handful of goal scoring opportunities. But as has been the case this season, they simply couldn't put the ball in the back of the net.

The second half was more of the same until Barcelona were finally able to break the deadlock in the 55th minute.

Frenkie de Jong sent in a wonderful cross to Raphinha in behind the defense. The Brazilian then spotted a wide open Joao Felix who simply tapped the ball in the back of the net. There was some confusion after as no Barcelona player seemed to celebrate the goal.

"Celebrating a goal is now sometimes bittersweet because it is disallowed for offside or a foul," Felix said. "I didn't celebrate that much because of that."

Up a goal, Barcelona settled down into the game and were circulating the ball well, creating opportunities to increase the lead but, once again, failing to do so when the chances presented themselves.

Allow an opponent to stay in the game, sooner or later, they're going to make you pay.

Valencia did just that as Hugo Guillamon's long range strike gave Los Che the equalizer.

In addition to Barcelona's deficiencies in front of goal, the equalizer displayed exactly what's wrong with Barcelona defensively. The goal came from a hopeful long ball from the right flank. It wasn't cleared properly and a number of the Barcelona defenders were left ball watching, allowing Guillamon to get a shot off.

But Barcelona had plenty of time to find a winner and almost had one. Ferran Torres put Raphinha through with a precise pass, leaving the Brazilian one-on-one with the goalkeeper. Raphinha's effort was blocked with a clearance off the line in his follow-up.

That was Barcelona's ails in a microcosm. Their inability to score more than one goal has cost them throughout the season and it did so again. It's a problem that the players are fully aware of.

"The point tastes like nothing," Joao Cancelo said. "We had chances to score four goals. It is a bad result."

The point does nothing for Barcelona's league title hopes. It also doesn't help Xavi Hernandez too much as he is in desperate need of a result. With a match midweek against Almeria, he is safe for at least another game. Another loss or a draw against Almeria, however, could sour his holidays.