While Real Madrid were hosting Málaga, Barcelona were visiting Valencia.
It was a hard-fought battle, because Valencia were one of the few La Liga teams strong enough to go toe-to-toe with the two Spanish Super League giants.
More importantly, after Guardiola began coaching Barcelona, his first two visits to Mestalla had both ended in draws. They had even come close to losing one of those matches.
This season, Valencia had lost their two star players, Villa and David Silva, but their overall strength remained impressive. Barcelona dared not let their guard down, and Guardiola had even fielded an unusually defensive lineup.
A 3-5-2, though somewhat similar to a 4-4-2 Formation, with Messi and Villa pushed up front.
Even so, Barcelona still struggled at Mestalla. Their opponents clearly knew how to freeze Barcelona's buildup and attack, and they had matched Barcelona evenly throughout the entire game.
Barcelona naturally had the greater share of possession, but Valencia's counterattacks were also dangerous and well executed.
The two sides went into halftime at 0–0. Barcelona had shown no signs of being able to comfortably defeat their opponents, while Valencia became even more aggressive in the second half, clearly trying to pull off a major upset at home and bring down the arrogant Barcelona.
It had to be known that Barcelona had lost only once this season: 0–1 at home to Real Madrid.
Apart from the Galácticos, no team in all of Europe had been able to defeat Barcelona.
Valencia wanted to become the second!
But sometimes, that was simply how things went. Once you began wanting something and let yourself become distracted, the opponent's fatal blow would arrive.
In the seventy-seventh minute, Xavi sent a through ball forward. Adriano cut past a defender on the left side of the penalty area and crossed. Messi