Barcelona: Barcelona’s title defence was derailed as Villarreal romped to a sensational 5-3 victory in La Liga on Saturday with three late goals.
After Real Madrid twice edged Girona atop the league with a win at Las Palmas, Xavi Hernandez’s reigning champions finished third.
In a crucial match, Gerard Moreno and Ilias Akhomach gave Villarreal a two-goal lead. Barcelona responded.
Ilkay Gundogan and Pedri scored before Eric Bailly headed towards his own to give the home side the lead.
However, Goncalo Guedes fired home in the 84th minute before Alexander Sorloth’s stoppage time and Jose Luis Morales left Barcelona ten times opponents of Madrid.
“It wasn’t a smart game, but if you’re losing two goals and then winning 3-2, you can’t reveal it,” Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong told DAZN.
“We have to do it because. . . I don’t think that can happen in the most sensible team. “
Xavi brought in Joao Felix and midfielder Oriol Romeu from the team that lost in extra time to Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey in midweek, as well as young defender Hector Fort.
After this elimination and a thrashing of Madrid in the final of the Spanish Super Cup, Barcelona have La Liga and the Champions League on the table.
Barcelona’s 16-year-old sensation Lamine Yamal sparkled and invented down the right, but Villarreal were the more damaging team in the first half.
Barcelona have conceded far too many early goals this season and after three minutes Alex Baena struck, but it was ruled out for offside.
Felix had a vicious strike tipped over by Filip Jorgensen before Villarreal had another strike disallowed, controversially.
Moreno lost the ball near the post, but Alexander Sorloth ruled the offside and blocked defender Ronald Araujo.
It was third time lucky for the Yellow Submarine, however, with Moreno firing home Sorloth’s cut-back with aplomb — this time it counted.
Unhappy
As the players trudged in for half-time Barcelona were whistled by disgruntled supporters at their temporary home at the Olympic Stadium.
Xavi made a triple substitution at half-time, bringing on Joao Cancelo, Pedri Gonzalez and 17-year-old defender Pau Cubarsi.
It fired the team up as they pushed Villarreal back, but they conceded a foolish second goal after a bad Cancelo mistake.
The defender miskicked the ball allowing former Barcelona winger Akhomach to gallop in on goal, rounding Inaki Pena and rolling home.
Undeterred, Barcelona managed to come back.
Gundogan finished superbly after Robert Lewandowski deflected the ball from the edge of the domain after an hour.
Then, eight minutes later, Pedri went home to score the scoring, before Bailly headed a Gundogan free-kick into his own net.
Barcelona substitute Vitor Roque went on to add a fourth, but Jorgensen kept his low shot after running in behind.
Barcelona were awarded a penalty in the 90th minute when Santi Comesaña elbowed a cross from Gundogan, which was disallowed by the referee after a VAR review of the incident, leaving the home side furious.
The worst is yet to come, with Sorloth completing from a narrow diversity to give Villarreal the lead and Morales rubbing salt in the wound with a fifth-fifth, with Barcelona in complete disarray.
“It’s been a season and the fans deserved something like that. “
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