Barcelona suffer major La Liga title blow in Granada defeat

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By Conor Laird

Published: April 29, 2021 8:23 pm

Last Updated: April 29, 2021 8:35 pm

A rough night for La Liga heavyweights Barcelona on Thursday saw Lionel Messi and co. drop what could prove to be an absolutely critical three points.

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Messi breaks Ronaldo tie

Ronald Koeman’s men welcomed Granada to the Camp Nou a short time ago.

The Blaugrana headed into proceedings with their tails up, having taken full advantage of recent slip-ups on the part of both Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, to retake the edge in the race for the La Liga title.

Ahead of kick-off in Catalunya, Barca were aware that a victory would see them move a point clear of Atleti at the division’s summit.

In turn, when Lionel Messi opened the evening’s scoring with 23 minutes on the clock, things looked very much on track for Koeman and co.

A clever exchange between the hosts’ captain and Antoine Griezmann eventually resulted in Messi picking out the far corner of the Granada net in style:

A big night for Barcelona and, of course, Lionel Messi delivers! 🙌

That’s his 26th of the season in LaLiga 🔥

Lovely play with Griezmann in the build-up 😍 pic.twitter.com/79zaRdARSD

— Premier Sports 📺 (@PremierSportsTV) April 29, 2021

The Argentine’s strike, meanwhile, also proved significant in seeing him break a deadlock with long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo.

Messi now sits on 26 league goals for the season, one more than the Portuguese at Juventus.

Molina completes the turnaround

As outlined above, however, Barcelona’s joy proved short-lived.

Just past the hour-mark, with the hosts completely dominating possession, Granada broke, eventually resulting in Darwin Machis slotting home at Marc-André ter Stegen’s near post:

Don’t think this was in the script for Ronald Koeman (who has since been sent off)! 😬

Darwin Machis gets an equaliser for Granada as Barcelona are made to pay for not turning their possession into enough clear cut chances so far 👀 pic.twitter.com/2hQSjEAyXy

— Premier Sports 📺 (@PremierSportsTV) April 29, 2021

Then, 10 minutes from time, the turnaround was complete.

Another breakaway this time saw Jorge Molina afforded far too much space in the hosts’ box, to secure all three points with a fine header:

Granada take the lead at Camp Nou! 😱😱

Molina scores and it’s another colossal twist in the LaLiga title race 🤷 pic.twitter.com/dqo39dEBjg

— Premier Sports 📺 (@PremierSportsTV) April 29, 2021

In turn, amid a topsy-turvy race for the title in Spain, it is advantage Atletico once more, with Barcelona having now dropped to 3rd: