Raphinha’s first-half header was enough to give Barcelona a narrow win over struggling Valencia at Camp Nou where the home side were reduced to 10 men for the last half-hour of the match in La Liga on Sunday.
Raphinha nodded a header over the goalkeeper after a brilliant long pass by midfielder Sergio Busquets who spotted the Brazilian winger ghosting behind the defence into the box in the 15th minute.
Barça could have extended their lead in the 55th minute when Ferran Torres hit his penalty wide of the goal. Five minutes after that, however, they lost defender Ronald Araújo who received a straight red card for a last-man foul on Hugo Duro.
Xavi’s side top the league on 62 points, nine clear of second-placed Real Madrid who were held to a goalless draw at Real Betis on Sunday evening. Karim Benzema thought he had opened the scoring from a 12th-minute free-kick, but VAR intervened after the ball deflected in off Antonio Rüdiger’s arm.
In the second half, Borja Iglesias saw his shot saved by Thibaut Courtois before the visitors began to turn the screw. Rodrygo and Dani Ceballos missed chances while Claudio Bravo denied Vinícius Júnior and Benzema as Carlo Ancelotti’s side ran out of time to make the breakthrough.
In Germany, mid-table Bayer Leverkusen trounced struggling Hertha Berlin. Leverkusen went 2-0 up inside 21 minutes through Sardar Azmoun and Jeremie Frimpong, with Moussa Diaby adding a third on the hour mark. Although Hertha pulled one back, the home side responded with Amine Adli making it 4-1.
Eintracht Frankfurt’s top-four hopes suffered a blow as they drew 2-2 at Wolfsburg. The hosts went in front through Omar Marmoush early on, but Randal Kolo Muani levelled with a header before centre-back Evan Ndicka struck a thunderbolt from distance to put Eintracht ahead. Yannick Gerhardt headed home to make it level at half time, and neither side was able to find a winner in the second half.
In Serie A, Roma boosted their hopes of Champions League qualification with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Juventus to go fourth in the table. After Adrien Rabiot was denied by Rui Patrício from close range, centre-back Gianluca Mancini struck in the 53rd minute, his superb strike finding the bottom corner from 25 yards out.
Juve pushed for an immediate equaliser with Juan Cuadrado hitting the post from a free kick, before Mancini almost flicked a corner into his own net. Danilo’s late shot was straight at Rui Patrício, and substitute Moise Kean was sent off for kicking out at Mancini as the visitor’s faint top four hopes suffered a major blow.
Internazionale moved up to second, 15 points behind the leaders Napoli, with a 2-0 home win over Lecce. Henrikh Mkhitaryan curled home the opener from Nicolò Barella on the half-hour, with Lautaro Martínez slotting home Denzel Dumfries’ cross early in the second half.
In Ligue 1, Marseille rebounded from cup embarrassment in midweek with a 1-0 win at Rennes. Having sent PSG out of the Coupe de France in the last 16, Igor Tudor’s side were beaten on penalties by second-tier Annecy in Wednesday’s quarter-final. The visitors boosted their Champions League hopes on Sunday, however, with Sead Kolasinac scoring the second-half winner from a quick free-kick.
Montpellier inflicted further misery on rock-bottom Angers with a comprehensive 5-0 victory – Teji Savanier scored twice as Nabil Bentaleb was sent off for the visitors. Lyon and Lorient played out a goalless draw and Saîf-Eddine Khaoui scored the only goal as Clermont won at Toulouse. Elsewhere, Ike Ugbo scored a stoppage-time equaliser to earn Troyes a 2-2 draw against Monaco.
