Celta Vigo 1-2 Barcelona: Player ratings as Lewandowski's late penalty seals hard-fought win

  • Robert Lewandowski netted a 97th-minute penalty to lead Barcelona past Celta Vigo
  • Poland striker opened the scoring shortly before half-time but Vigo tied up straight after the restart
  • Both sides had chances to secure the three points
Lewandowski's penalty made the difference
Lewandowski's penalty made the difference / Quality Sport Images/GettyImages
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Robert Lewandowski struck a 97th-minute penalty to steer Barcelona to a 2-1 win over Celta Vigo on Saturday.

The Poland international, who had opened the scoring shortly before half-time, actually missed the effort first time around but was awarded a retake as Vicente Guaita left his line early, and Lewandowski made no mistake second time around.

Both sides had chances to win the game but it was Barcelona who were celebrating when the dust settled, with the Blaugrana's title hopes still hanging on by a thread.

Vitor Roque, starting out on the left wing, linked up well with Lamine Yamal early on to create the first real chance of the game, and both sides would exchange sights of goal in an end-to-end first half which had fans sweating from start to finish.

Yamal's quality eventually shone through as the young winger, who had seen a handful of chances of his own kept out, played a perfect ball through to Lewandowski on the stroke of half-time to give Xavi something to celebrate.

Celta, however, came out flying for the second half and tied things up just two minutes after the restart.

Former Barca man Oscar Migueza teed up Iago Aspas, whose strike took a horrible deflection off Jules Kounde which left Marc-Andre ter Stegen with absolutely no hope of keeping a clean sheet.

The chances didn't slow down, with both Barcelona and Celta throwing everything forward, but it looked as though they would have to settle for a draw until Yamal was tripped in the penalty area deep into injury time.

Guaita actually saved Lewandowski's first effort but a VAR check confirmed he had left his line too early and a retake was awarded. Both striker and goalkeeper went the same way this time, but Guaita couldn't keep this one out as Lewandowski wheeled off to celebrate a huge three points.


Barcelona player ratings vs Celta Vigo (4-3-3)

GK: Marc-Andre ter Stegen (6); RB: Jules Kounde (6); CB: Ronald Araujo (6); CB: Pau Cubarsi (7); LB: Joao Cancelo (8); DM: Andreas Christensen (6); CM: Frenkie de Jong (8); CM: Pedri (7); RW: Lamine Yamal (8); ST: Robert Lewandowski (8); LW: Vitor Roque (6)

Subs: Inigo Martinez (6), Raphinha (6), Ilkay Gundogan (6), Fermin Lopez (6), Oriol Romeu (N/A)


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