Celta Vigo vs. Barcelona: Winners and Losers from La Liga
Barcelona reestablished a four-point lead at the top of La Liga on Sunday evening as they came through a hard-fought game at Celta Vigo to win, 1-0.
After both teams had goals ruled out for offside, Jeremy Mathieu produced a stunning diving header to score the only goal of the game—his second strike in successive games following his effort in the Clasico last time out.
Here are all our winners and losers from Sunday's match.
Winners: Centre-Back Partnership for Barcelona
1 of 5
Barcelona's double act at the back featured Gerard Pique and Jeremy Mathieu, and both deserve credit and recognition for their performance.
Pique was certainly more solid and reliable in defence, as the Spain international is in a great run of form in 2015. He showed both his maturity and his defensive technique during the match, stopping the early dominance of Celta with fantastic reading of the game and then in the second half with a goal-saving tackle inside his own area.
Mathieu also played his part, making blocks and winning headers, while his bullet-headed goal at the other end was a match-winning one.
Loser: Neymar's Utterly Ineffective Evening
2 of 5
While he enjoyed a great run of games earlier in the calendar year to mark him out as one of the league's top talents, Neymar has struggled for impact and effectiveness of late and had a total stinker of a match for Barcelona against Celta.
Early on, his touch was woeful, and he seemed to lack concentration in basic instances such as controlling passes and moving away from play to create space. He then started to pull wide in an attempt to get on the ball more. But Hugo Mallo, the Celta right-back, thwarted him at every turn, and Neymar was visibly frustrated with the close attentions.
A couple of half-hearted attempts to get in the box aside, this was as poor as Neymar has been all season long, and he is certainly the least effective member of the Barca attacking triumvirate at present.
Winner: Luis Enrique
3 of 5
Manager Luis Enrique lost out to his old club in the reverse fixture earlier this season, suffering a 1-0 defeat at Camp Nou. But this time around, he managed to strike an eventual balance of hard work, closing out space and biding time to let Barcelona's quality shine through.
Some of his choices were open to debate—it was surprising Ivan Rakitic didn't feature earlier, if not from the start, given the energy expended in midfield by Celta—but as his side came away with the 1-0 win, he won't mind in the slightest.
Enrique remains on course for a treble of trophies in his first season with the club.
Loser: Joaquin Larrivey
4 of 5
Celta's early dominance gave them hope of recording a first league double over Barcelona in well over half a century, but they failed to find a finishing touch to their best moves.
Aside from the strike ruled out for offside, the best chance fell to Joaquin Larrivey, the striker who netted the winner at the Camp Nou earlier this season. But this time around, he was horribly off-form and miscued a relatively routine shot that should have put his team ahead.
It wasn't a tremendous surprise to see Larrivey subbed for Charles once again, and he now has just two league goals in five months since that Camp Nou winner.
Winner: Xavi
5 of 5
Xavi Hernandez started on the bench once again for Barcelona, but he was the first man Luis Enrique turned to as he tried to stem Celta's early dominance.
Almost as soon as the veteran came on, Barcelona began to run things better in midfield. The away side played at a faster tempo with a better link man between the middle and final thirds. Xavi pushed on toward the edge of the box to link with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, something Rafinha had failed to do beforehand.
A half-chance on the turn, a through pass and a demand to receive the ball quicker were not especially flashy moments from Xavi, but they were all indicative of Barcelona's gradual dominance in a game they had been second-best in. Xavi's free-kick delivery also provided the assist to Mathieu's winner.
