Barcelona’s quest for 100 factors in La Liga got here to an finish on Wednesday evening because the champions suffered a slim 1-0 defeat away to Deportivo Alaves at Mendizorrotza.
A heavily-rotated Barcelona aspect that includes a number of reserves struggled to seek out any rhythm in assault and produced a flat efficiency within the Basque Nation, simply days after securing the title with a 2-0 win over Real Madrid in El Clasico.
As anticipated, the guests dominated possession all through the opening phases however created little or no of observe regardless of controlling a lot of the ball.
Marcus Rashford supplied Barcelona’s solely actual menace within the first half with a few half-chances that failed to noticeably bother the Alavés goalkeeper.
Alaves, in the meantime, performed with far larger urgency as they looked for useful factors of their struggle towards relegation.
The hosts regarded harmful from set items and direct balls into the field, and their stress finally paid off simply earlier than half-time.
Following a nook deep into first-half stoppage time, Ibrahim Diabate reacted quickest throughout a scramble inside the realm to bundle the ball residence and provides Alavés a deserved lead on the break.
The second half adopted the same sample with Barcelona seeing loads of possession however displaying virtually no creativity or leading edge within the closing third.
Alaves stayed compact and disciplined defensively whereas the sport grew to become more and more scrappy with a number of fouls, bookings and little or no total high quality from both aspect.
The ultimate whistle handed Alaves a large victory of their battle towards relegation, whereas Hansi Flick’s aspect noticed their hopes of reaching the 100-point mark disappear regardless of one other encouraging show from 21-year-old Álvaro Cortés at centre-back.
