Barca suffer shock defeat to Almeria to keep Real Madrid alive in title race

LALIGA Barca suffer shock defeat to Almeria to keep Real Madrid alive in title race

Ifeanyi Ufomadu 20:30 - 26.02.2023

Almeria caused a huge upset by defeating league leaders Barcelona 1-0 to end the Blaugrana's seven-game winning run in LaLiga

El Bilal Toure scored the only goal of the game to help relegation-threatened Almeria see off the mighty Barcelona in Andalusia

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How it happened

Barcelona came into this fixture reeling from the defeat to Manchester United in the UEFA Europa League on Thursday night. Real Madrid had dropped points in their game against Atletico which provided extra incentive for Xavi's men.

Barca dictated the tempo in the early stages as Almeria found it hard to get on the ball but the hosts, who started the afternoon in the bottom three, opened the scoring out of nothing.

Luis Suarez played a pass over the top to El Bilal Toure who beat Andreas Christensen for pace and fired an unstoppable shot off the crossbar to send the home fans wild.

El Bilal Toure celebrates after scoring against Barcelona

The home team had two big chances to double the lead immediately after the opener and Marc-Andre ter Stegen needed to make an important save to keep Barca in the game. 

Despite the warning signs, there was no urgency in the visitors' display, sloppy passes and wayward efforts, with an improvement clearly needed after the break.

Xavi made a halftime change with Raphinha replacing Franck Kessie in a bid to add more verve to Barca's attack but over the course of the half, it didn't seem to make any noticeable change.  

The Catalans continued to pass sideways and send aimless balls into the box which resulted in absolutely nothing.

Almeria almost added insult to injury at the end after a counter-attacking move but Ter Stegen was equal to the task.

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The defeat was Barcelona’s first in LaLiga since mid-October but worryingly, it marked consecutive losses following their mid-week Europa League exit at the hands of Manchester United.

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