Barcelona held by 10-man Alaves to increase winless streak
Barcelona managed to get four La Liga games without a win on Saturday after failing woefully to beat 10-man Alaves, a 1-1 draw leaving Ronald Koeman's side sitting 12th in the table.
Luis Rioja put Alaves in front at Mendizorrotza after one from Barca's back-up goalkeeper Neto, with Antoine Griezmann equalising in the next half, a minute after Jota Peleteiro have been sent off.
But with almost around 30 minutes left and an extra man, Barcelona were still struggling to locate a winner, instead settling for a draw to go with recent defeats by Getafe and Real Madrid, and another draw against Sevilla.
This means Madrid, who had earlier won 4-1 at home to Huesca, now sit eight points free from their Catalan rivals, having played a casino game more, while Atletico are six ahead once they beat Osasuna 3-1. Atletico will go top if indeed they win their game at hand.
Even as of this early stage in the title race, the gap is significant and Koeman will know the scrutiny on his position as coach increase, particularly following the resignation of Josep Maria Bartomeu as president on Tuesday.
Bartomeu appointed Koeman coach in August and eight points from the first six league games isn't the type of form which will impress another president and board, who should be voted in prior to the end of January.
"I'm very disappointed," said Koeman. "Once again we haven't played sufficiently to acquire a result. The first goal was a present and we created a lot of chances but didn't take them."
Koeman's decision to substitute Ansu Fati with 12 minutes left was particularly surprising given Fati have been arguably Barcelona's most dangerous player, maybe even more dangerous than Lionel Messi, who endured a frustrating night.
Messi has still not scored in open play this year even though he was in the centre of nearly every Barca attack, his touch and finishing was again much less crisp as usual. He was booked in the first half for dissent.
Fati and Griezmann both missed early chances while a Messi free-kick could have gone in had Florian Lejeune not been perfectly placed at risk.
Frenkie de Jong was unlucky never to have had a penalty when nudged out of a free of charge header by Ximo Navarro before a Barca mistake gifted Alaves the opening goal.
Gerard Pique underestimated how close Neto was to him and the defender's firmly hit backpass caught the goalkeeper by surprise. Neto didn't adjust his feet and Rioja capitalised, robbing him of the ball and experiencing an open net.
Koeman made three changes at half-time, with Pedri, Francisco Trincao and Miralem Pjanic all coming on.
But Barca found it difficult to breakdown the Alaves defence until Peleteiro gave them an opening. He booted Pique in the facial skin to earn a second yellow card in the 62nd minute and in the 63rd, Griezmann equalised, a perfect, lifted finish pulling Barcelona level.
It had been almost 2-1 a minute later but Messi's finish was well saved while Griezmann had a second eliminated for offside. Fati fired at goal prior to going off and Pique's finish was cleared off the line. Alaves held on.
- Hazard ends goal drought -
Eden Hazard earlier scored his first goal for Real Madrid in over a year and his team may actually have turned a corner after their comfortable win over Huesca.
Hazard has had an awful time with injuries since joining Madrid for 100 million euros from Chelsea in 2019 however the Belgian will hope his gorgeous strike from distance at the Alfredo di Stefano can kick-start his career in Spain.
"We know the quality that Eden has," Zidane said. "He scored an excellent goal and we needed it in the first half, because after his first goal the game was different."
Karim Benzema and Fede Valverde made the win secure before Huesca scored through David Ferreiro, only for Benzema to add his second and Madrid's fourth in injury-time.
It caps an encouraging week for Zidane's side, which started out with the Clasico win at Camp Nou and finishes with them the surface of the table, two points before Real Sociedad.
