Home Soccer Luis Suarez Scores as Barcelona Escape with Narrow Win vs. Leganes

Luis Suarez Scores as Barcelona Escape with Narrow Win vs. Leganes

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Barcelona came from behind to beat bottom-of-the-table Leganes 2-1 in La Liga on Saturday.

Youssef En-Nesyri scored for the hosts at the Estadio Municipal de Butarque in the 12th minute.

Luis Suarez levelled proceedings in the 53rd minute with a header, before substitute Arturo Vidal grabbed a winner with 11 minutes of normal time remaining.

Barca have picked up their ninth win in 13 league matches this season, but they’ve shipped 16 goals along the way.

Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde started with an attacking setup, with Ousmane Dembele handed a start alongside all three of Lionel Messi, Suarez and Antoine Griezmann.

However, it was Leganes who started the better of the two sides.

After chances for Martin Braithwaite and Roque Mesa, they took the lead through En-Nesyri when he cut inside and bent a fine effort around Gerard Pique and Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

The visitors did not have a chance of note until Messi slipped in Suarez in the 23rd minute, but the striker fired over.

Suarez came close again to equalising for Barca:

Football journalist Dermot Corrigan and AS’ Robbie Dunne gave their take on the two sides at half-time:

The Catalan giants almost pulled level minutes after the restart when Pique headed a corner on to the post, but they equalised soon after when Suarez headed home a Messi free-kick.

Messi forced a save from Ivan Cuellar and Junior Firpo volleyed over as the visitors sought a winner, but they struggled to create clear-cut opportunities against the obdurate hosts.

They eventually broke through Leganes’ defence with another set piece, when Dembele’s corner deflected off Ruben Perez and into the path of Vidal, who made no mistake from point-blank range.

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