Valencia’s players celebrate a goal during their Spanish league match against Barcelona at the Mestalla stadium in Valencia on Saturday. (AFP)

AFP/Valencia


New Valencia coach Gary Neville watched on from the stands as Santi Mina’s late equaliser handed his side a shock 1-1 draw at home to European champions Barcelona on Saturday night.
Luis Suarez had put the visitors into a controversial lead as he appeared to be offside before slotting in at the near post, but Valencia’s work rate was rewarded when Mina fired into the top corner five minutes from time.
Real Madrid are now just four points behind Barca as they bounced back from their embarrassing elimination from the Copa del Rey for fielding an ineligible player in midweek with Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo all on target in their 4-1 thrashing of Getafe. However, Real remain third, two points behind Atletico Madrid, after goals from Diego Godin and Antoine Griezmann handed Diego Simeone’s men a 2-0 win at Granada. Neville didn’t officially took charge until yesterday, leaving Valencia in the hands of caretaker boss Voro and his brother Phil Neville and the depleted hosts put up a brave fight against the superior quality of the European champions.
“There is nothing to reproach the team for,” said Barca boss Luis Enrique. “We played a complete game at a very difficult place to come, we dominated the whole game and had by far the most chances. We weren’t rewarded for all the effort we put in, but defensively Valencia played very well.”
Barcelona should have had the game wrapped up by half-time, but the star front three of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Suarez were uncharacteristically wasteful in front of goal. Messi spooned the first chance over from Neymar’s fine cross before the latter ballooned the ball into the stands with just Jaume Domenech to beat.
More brilliance on the left wing from Neymar teed up Messi once more, but on his weaker right foot he fired straight at Domenech. Suarez then fluffed his lines when he tried to square for Neymar when clean through only to overhit his cross and see the ball fly to safety.
Moments later Suarez was denied a tap-in as Aderlan Santos got just enough of a deflection on Jordi Alba’s cross to take the ball away from Suarez. Valencia claimed Suarez was lucky to stay on the field at the start of the second period as he appeared to stamp on Aymen Abdennour’s foot after a heated exchange between the two.
And Valencia felt even more hard done by when it was Suarez who finally opened the scoring as he squeezed the ball in at Domenech’s near post despite latching onto Messi’s pass from an offside position. Yet, they made Barca pay for their profligacy when Paco Alcacer held up a long ball over the top and laid the ball perfectly into Mina’s path to slam home his first goal for the club.
Atletico remained in front of their city rivals Real thanks to another solid display as they recorded their sixth clean sheet in seven games to extend their winning run in all competitions to six games. Godin powered home the opener from Koke’s corner after 20 minutes to give the visitors the perfect start. Griezmann made the game safe in spectacular fashion 14 minutes from time as the French international blasted high into the roof of the net from Oliver Torres’s clever through ball.
Yesterday,  Villarreal moved up to fifth place with a 2-1 comeback defeat of Rayo Vallecano, courtesy of a brace from promising Cedric Bakambu.
Villarreal lacked creativity in the first half and Jozabed gave Rayo the lead four minutes before the interval with a powerful half-volley which reflected the visitors’ superiority.
Villarreal improved towards the end and veteran Roberto Soldado set up Bakambu to make it 1-1 in the 69th minute. Three minutes from time, with Rayo desperate to hear the final whistle, Bakambu won the game for the hosts by turning in a near-post centre from Denis Suarez.  Villarreal are now fifth, one point below fourth-placed Celta Vigo but two above Deportivo Coruna.  Rayo, meanwhile, are in 15th place, four points above the relegation zone. It was a similar story earlier Sunday, when Real Sociedad came from behind to beat Basque rivals Eibar 2-1. Borja Baston gave Eibar an early lead only for Sociedad to turn the game around with a brace from Imanol Agirretxe, with the winner coming just two minutes from time.
Agirretxe is now third in the Liga scorers’ chart with 12 goals, behind Neymar and Suarez, though Spain manager Vicente del Bosque continues to overlook him.