Barcelona suffered a shock 2-1 defeat at Deportivo La Coruña, four days after their dramatic 6-1 Champions League win over Paris Saint-Germain. Luis Enrique’s side also lost top-spot to Real Madrid after they beat Real Betis 2-1 last night thanks to a late goal from Sergio Ramos. Zinedine Zidane’s side now lead La Liga by two points and have a game in hand over Barcelona in second. The former Real Madrid youth trainee Joselu gave Deportivo a deserved lead in the 40th minute after an error by the Barça goalkeeper, Marc-André ter Stegen, although Luis Suárez equalised after 46 minutes with a powerful drilled effort.
The Depor defender Alex Bergantinos headed them back in front after 74 minutes and Barcelona, who were without Neymar because of a thigh injury and clearly missed the Brazilian’s creative talents, failed to react.
Suárez was denied a second equaliser by a brilliant save from Germán Lux as Baecelona suffered a first defeat in 20 league games since being beaten 4-3 at Celta Vigo, also in Galicia, on 2 October.
Depor went into the game one place above the relegation zone but are on the rise under new coach Pepe Mel, who has now taken eight points in four games since succeeding the sacked Gaizka Garitano last month.
The Galicians were far from intimidated by Barca’s recent run of scoring 17 goals in their previous three outings, and did not allow the champions to settle. Joselu fired a venomous shot at goal in the first real attempt for either side, forcing an outstanding save from Ter Stegen to force a corner.
The German let himself down a minute later, though, letting the ball slip out of his hands from a tame shot and Joselu gobbled it up to score from close range.
Barca made the ideal start to the second half as Suarez instinctively drilled a loose ball under Lux to pull level, but they could not faze the home side, who soon set about restoring their lead.
Alejandro Arribas rattled the post with a header and Deportivo were wrongly given a corner, which they took full advantage of as Bergantinos outmuscled Jordi Alba to head home.
“We let them get into the game for too long in the first half and this is what football is like, when you give a team an advantage they always punish you,” Suarez told reporters.
“The PSG result did not cost us today, we’ve had enough days to recover. Deportivo are fighting relegation and we knew it was going to be difficult here but we’re not going to give up the fight for La Liga.”
