Barcelona maintained their slim chances of retaining their La Liga title as they came from behind to beat Athletic Bilbao 2-1 at the Camp Nou. Aritz Aduriz’s opener five minutes into the second-half on Sunday had Barca on course for a fourth consecutive defeat in all competitions.
However, the Catalans showed fine spirit to respond as two goals in as many minutes from Pedro Rodriguez and Lionel Messi handed them all three points.
Victory lifts Barca into second place, two points ahead of Real Madrid having played a game more, but still four points adrift of leaders Atletico Madrid with four games remaining. Defeat for Athletic also hots up the race for fourth place as the Basque side now lead Sevilla by just three points with the two sides set to meet next weekend.
After a difficult 10 days which saw his side eliminated from the Champions League, lose the Copa del Rey final to Real Madrid and see their title chances dented by defeat at Granada last weekend, Barca boss Gerardo Martino hailed his players resolve.
‘In the first half I was thinking it would be one of those days because it is not normal that a team has so many chances and doesn’t score. They kept playing and with a lot of heart in a difficult situation. More than just playing good football, which they always do, they showed a lot of courage and heart,’ he said.
Barca had the majority of the chances early on as Pedro wasted the first opening of the game as he placed his shot too close to Gorka Iraizoz before the Athletic goalkeeper also smothered an effort from Messi.
It was the visitors who nearly went in front in spectacular style on the half hour, though, as Aduriz sent a stunning overhead kick crashing off the inside of the post and Jose Manuel Pinto reacted well to parry Markel Susaeta’s follow-up effort.
The hosts did finally find a way through 18 minutes from time in somewhat fortunate circumstances as Sanchez’s intended shot fell perfectly into the path of Pedro to tap home. Two minutes later Messi was felled on the edge of the area and he picked himself up to thump the resulting free kick low into the far corner.