Barcelona earned a vital La Liga victory on Sunday night, overcoming Valencia 3-1 courtesy of goals from Ansu Fati, Memphis Depay and Philippe Coutinho.
A fairly uneventful start was lit up on five minutes when Jose Gaya was first to latch onto a cleared corner, before firing in a thunderbolt of a half volley into Marc-Andre ter Stegen's bottom corner to open the scoring.
La Blaugrana were not behind for long, however, equalising just nine minutes later. Fati and Depay linked up seamlessly in the final third, before the former placed a sublime curling effort into the far corner from outside the area.
Gaya turned from hero to villain for the visitors with five minutes remaining of the first period. The Valencia skipper made a last-ditch attempt at denying Fati in front of goal, although mistimed his challenge and hacked down the 18-year-old as he was pulling the trigger. The responsibility from the spot fell onto the shoulders of Depay, who fired his penalty into the top corner.
Valencia threatened to pull level throughout the second half, although it was the hosts that managed to bag the fourth goal of the contest. A breakaway move saw Sergino Dest with the ball on the right wing, before brilliantly making space for himself under pressure and finding Coutinho in the box. The Brazilian was unmarked in front of goal, giving him time to pick his spot and find the back of the net to make sure of the victory with minutes remaining.
