Barcelona move into second place as Lewandowski hat-trick sinks Valencia

Barcelona earned a vital three points with a 4-2 victory over Valencia on Monday evening which moved them back into the LaLiga EA Sports top-two.

Fermin Lopez opened the scoring for the hosts after 22 minutes after Raphinha sent a precise lobbed pass into the penalty area.

Lopez was able to jump higher than the defenders and headed the ball into the top corner of the net from near the penalty spot.

Just four minutes later Valencia were able to draw level thanks to a catastrophic error from Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

The German stopper spilled the ball into the path of Hugo Duro, who put the ball into the back of the net from close-range.

VAR, though, wanted to check if there was an offside in the build-up. However, replays would show that there wasn’t and Valencia’s equalizer would indeed stand.

Ronald Araujo made another mistake

Ronald Araujo hasn’t enjoyed the best time in the last couple of weeks. His red-card was hugely costly as Barcelona went out of the Champions League to Paris Saint-Germain.

He was at fault yet again on Monday evening when he brought down a Valencia forward with a very late challenge inside the area.

The referee pointed to the spot and Pepelu stepped up and converted the penalty.

Araujo then had the chance to make up for his mistake just before half-time when his header rattled the post.

The ball bounced behind for a goal-kick, although a VAR intervention was to change the course of the match.

Although nobody was initially clear what was going on, the official signaled that he was going to review an earlier incident involving Giorgi Mamardashvili.

The goalkeeper was shown a red-card after a review, forcing Valencia to reshuffle their setup.

It proved to be the turning point of the game as Barcelona levelled the game in the 49th minute through Robert Lewandowski heading home from an Ilkay Gundogan corner.

Araujo then leapt highest inside the Valencia penalty area in the 82nd minute, nodding the ball back across goal and Lewandowski was on-hand to tap the ball into the net.

The Polish forward completed the victory in injury-time with a stunning free-kick into the top left corner of the net.