Messi, Suarez score late in 4-4 draw for Barca

April 03, 2019
Barcelona forward Luis Suarez embraces Villarreal’s Santi Cazorla during the Spanish La Liga match between Villarreal and FC Barcelona at the Ceramica stadium in Villarreal, Spain, yesterday.
Barcelona forward Luis Suarez embraces Villarreal’s Santi Cazorla during the Spanish La Liga match between Villarreal and FC Barcelona at the Ceramica stadium in Villarreal, Spain, yesterday.

(AP):

Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez came to Barcelona's rescue yesterday, scoring late goals to salvage a 4-4 draw at 10-man Villarreal in a thrilling seesaw match that saw both teams give up a two-goal lead.

Messi rifled in a free kick off the upright to make it 4-3 in the 90th minute, and Suarez then shot through the legs of a defender to snatch a point with the last kick of the match.

The draw narrowed Barcelona's lead of the Spanish league to eight points ahead of Atletico Madrid, which beat Girona 2-0 also yesterday and visit Camp Nou this weekend.

"Luis is a player who is always in the right place at the right time, and he appeared at the last second to pull out a match that was not going our way," Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde said. "And Messi, he is a specialist (at free kicks.)"

Messi was on the bench for the first hour but Barcelona still took a quick 2-0 lead.

Unanswered goals

However, relegation-threatened Villarreal roared back with 19-year-old Samuel Chukwueze leading the way and produced four unanswered goals to come agonisingly close to pulling off the upset. Barcelona's comeback then came after Alvaro Gonzalez was sent off for a second booking in the 86th.

"This was a crazy game," Valverde said. "There were stretches when it looked like we would win easily, then there was a stretch when it looked like they would. Then we managed to turn it around."

Messi's goal was his league-leading 32nd of the season and his sixth from a free kick. He has now scored from free kicks in three consecutive matches after converting set pieces against Real Betis and Espanyol.

Valverde gave Messi some rest before Saturday's match against Atletico and next week's trip to Manchester United for the first leg of their Champions League quarter-finals.

And at first it seemed Barcelona would stroll to another win at the Estadio de la Ceramica, as the little-used Malcom set up Philippe Coutinho for his first league goal since October. Malcom then headed in a pass from Arturo Vidal to double the lead before Coutinho went close to getting another goal when he hit the post.

Other Sports Stories