adminMADRID. — Lionel Messi’s Barcelona suffered a fourth Spanish La Liga football defeat of the season as they went down 2-1 to Cadiz on Saturday, while Real Madrid eased the pressure on Zinedine Zidane with their first league win since October.
Barca are now a distant seventh, 12 points off leaders Atletico Madrid, who beat Real Valladolid 2-0.
Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman lambasted his players for conceding a farcical goal during their defeat by Cadiz, criticising their attitude after they slipped 12 points behind La Liga leaders Atletico Madrid.
Alvaro Negredo struck the winning goal after a series of surreal mistakes from Barca as Jordi Alba’s bungled throw-in flummoxed fellow defender Clement Lenglet and goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen kicked the ball against the forward, who gleefully followed it into the net.
“We lost because of an incredible error, that is not the level I expect from my team,” Koeman told Catalan network TV3 after Barca’s fourth defeat in 10 league games.
“It shows we were not concentrating. The attitude was not good tonight. I’m very disappointed and we have to improve.”
Cadiz had taken an early lead thanks to poor defending from Barca following a corner, when the inexperienced Oscar Mingueza almost headed the ball into his own net but the hosts’ forward Alvaro Gimenez scored instead.
Barca equalised in the 57th minute through an own goal by Pedro Alcala only to fall behind again soon after.
The comedy of errors which led to Cadiz’s winner was the third consecutive away game in a row in which Barca have made unforced mistakes and failed to win.
“It’s very difficult to explain the goals we are conceding lately. It could be down to a lack of concentration,” Koeman said.
“When we equalised we had half an hour left to score again but then we conceded a goal that we cannot afford to concede, from a throw-in. We also lacked aggression when we didn’t have the ball today.
“We had highs and lows during the game and also in our attitude.” Barca lost out on last season’s title to Real Madrid on the penultimate day of the campaign but now risk being knocked out of the title race with little more than a quarter of the season played.
“We have to see it like that after getting such a disappointing result today. Twelve points is a very big distance but we have to keep going.”
Koeman made three changes from the midweek Champions League win at Ferencvaros with goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen coming in for Neto.
But Ter Stegen made a first costly error in Andalusia after eight minutes as Alvaro Gimenez claimed his second goal in as many games.
The Barca defence failed to clear a corner which fell to Ter Stegen, but his weak parry onto his own line was tapped in by Gimenez.
Koeman’s men were all-square after 56 minutes as Jordi Alba’s low cross was deflected into his own goal by defender Pedro Alcala.
But Ter Stegen’s second costly error came eight minutes later.
Clement Lenglet made a hash of Alba’s throw in before Ter Stegen failed to clear under pressure from Negredo and the former Manchester City striker claimed his third goal league goal of the campaign.
Under-pressure Zidane said Madrid’s scrappy 1-0 victory in Seville was significant after a testing run of results. Sevilla goalkeeper Bono guided Vinicius Junior’s effort into his own net in the second half, allowing Zidane’s side to take the three points and move up to third in the table, six points behind Atletico.
Following two defeats in the past three games, including a 2-0 defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk in midweek that leaves Real’s Champions League qualification hopes in the balance, Spanish press reports have linked former Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino and ex-Madrid forward Raul to Zidane’s job.
Zidane said he was satisfied with the points after a “difficult” time.
Atletico, now unbeaten in 26 games in La Liga, moved to the top of the table after France international Thomas Lemar and Spain midfielder Marcos Llorente scored for Diego Simeone’s men against Valladolid.
Atletico are among five clubs to remain without a domestic defeat in Europe’s main five leagues since the start of the season. — AFP.
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