Leganes 1-2 Barcelona: Luis Suarez and Arturo Vidal spare Barca's blushes

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Ben Hayward23 November 2019

Second-half goals from Luis Suarez and Arturo Vidal sealed an unconvincing 2-1 win for La Liga leaders Barcelona away to bottom-of-the-table Leganes on Saturday.

Leganes were in their first game under new coach Javier Aguirre and Barca, 2-1 losers in this fixture last season, found it difficult to create openings against the home side’s five-man defence.

Ernesto Valverde picked Lionel Messi, Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembele and Suarez together for the first time in a 4-2-3-1 formation, with the Argentine behind the Uruguayan.

But the system did not help the five-time Ballon d’Or winner and he did not manage a single shot in a disappointing first half.

Leganes took the lead in a quick break as Samuel Umtiti was caught out of position and Gerard Pique unable to cover after 12 minutes, when Youssef En-Nesyri curled an unstoppable shot past Marc-Andre ter Stegen from a difficult angle.

Barca were poor for the remainder of the first half, but a Pique header hit the post early in the second and Suarez levelled the scores after 53 minutes.

The Uruguayan, denied by Ivan Cuellar in the first half, rose to head home a Messi free-kick past the Leganes goalkeeper and that gave the Catalans some momentum.

Still the champions were not playing well, but substitute Arturo Vidal wrapped up a win as he smashed in from point-blank range with 10 minutes left in a goal which had initially looked offside.

But VAR replays showed the ball had hit a Leganes player before making its way to the Chilean by the post and the goal stood.

Dembele then missed a great chance to make it 3-1 in added time, but it did not matter as Valverde’s side secured a win which takes them three points clear of Real Madrid, in action later at home to Real Sociedad.

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