BARCELONA: Rayo Vallecano stunned impotent La Liga leaders Barcelona on Wednesday with a 2-1 win, outplaying the Catalans at a rowdy Vallecas.

Atletico Madrid cut the gap on second-place rivals Real Madrid to two points with a 3-1 win over Real Mallorca, celebrating their 120th anniversary in style. Xavi Hernandez's Barcelona remain 11 points clear of second-placed Real Madrid with seven matches remaining. After the champions lost at Girona on Tuesday their hopes of defending the title are virtually over, despite Barcelona following suit with a deserved defeat in the capital.

Xavi's side have won just one of their last four league matches -- a narrow triumph over Atletico on Sunday -- as they limp towards the finish line and a first title since 2019. Barcelona's coach urged his players to be wary of Rayo's threat before the game, but they did not heed his warning. The Catalans have not beaten the Madrid club in their last four league meetings. "The league is not finished, this is the problem -- we have to deserve La Liga, today we deserved defeat," Xavi told reporters.

"What annoys me is that today we did not compete how the game required us to. But we will get players back (from injury), there's another game on Saturday. "Here a lot of teams have lost, and others have had a lot of trouble winning. Luckily, there's another game on Saturday." The coach was without suspended captain Sergio Busquets but handed Pedri his first start since he was injured in February. Rayo broke the deadlock early on when Alvaro Garcia drilled home across Marc-Andre ter Stegen and into the bottom corner. Robert Lewandowski should have equalised for Barcelona but Rayo goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski denied the forward one-on-one, and then the Pole had a goal ruled out for offside. Rayo doubled their lead after the break when left-back Fran Garcia pressed Frenkie de Jong, collected the ball and drove on to score. "We knew that it was an important day for us, they say the giant-killers are back," said Fran Garcia. "The atmosphere can't be described ... we want to give it back in the best way possible." Lewandowski pulled one back for Barcelona after Franck Kessie's shot was blocked, ending a run of four games without a goal for the division's top scorer.

Published in The Daily National Courier, April, 28 2023

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