Barcelona fall to shock defeat

Barcelona's La Liga title hopes took a major hit after falling to Valladolid 1-0 on Saturday at the Estadio Nuevo José Zorrilla in Valladolid.

A first half goal from Italian Fausto Rossi was the game's lone goal as the Catalonians suffered their first defeat to Valladolid since 2002. The defeat could leave Barcelona as many as four points behind league leadersReal Madrid, who meet Levante on Sunday.

ManagerGerardo Martino fielded a strong starting XI with Lionel Messi, Neymar and Pedro forming the attack up front. In midfield, Sergio Busquets was flanked by Xavi and Cesc Fàbregas, while in the back Adriano, Javier Mascherano, Gerard Piqué and Dani Alves assumed the responsibility of helping goalkeeper Víctor Valdés keep a clean sheet.

One man who would not be made available to the Catalonians on Saturday was Andrés Iniesta who was not in the gameday 18 squad due to personal reasons.

Valladolid took a page out of Real Sociedad's playbook and started the match off by pressuring the Catalonian visitors, much like the Basque side did two weeks ago in their 3-1 win over Barcelona at Anoeta. Outside of a Messi chance in the ninth minute, the first 30 minutes of the first half belonged to the Pucela and they took a deserved lead in the 17th minute through Rossi.

Valladolid had a pair of shots deflected in the area, with the second deflection bouncing to Rossi who then fired past Valdés to give Valladolid the early shock 1-0 lead.

Barcelona finally started to work their way into the match in the final 15 minutes of the first stanza with several testing shots, but those were easily handled by Valladolid goalkeeperDiego Mariño. Overall though, it was a fruitless first half for Martino's men whose flank play was completely shut down by a very stout Valladolid defense.

Neymar had a golden opportunity to level the score in the 57th minute when Messi slightly touched over a Fàbregas pass to the Brazilian, but the former Santos man was unable to hit the bouncing ball cleanly and fired well over the goal.

Down a goal and with just 30 minutes remaining, Martino made his first switch of the match by replacing Fàbregas with Alexis Sánchez, thus dropping Messi slightly back into more of a roaming midfielder's role. Martino upped the ante in the final 20 minutes by replacing Piqué with midfielder Sergi Robertoand swapping a mediocre Neymar for Cristian Tello.

The final 15 minutes took on an air of desperation from the visitors as they frantically searched for an equalizer, but time and again Valladolid stood tall in defense and denied any and all attempts at goal from Barcelona. The closest chance for Barcelona came on a Messi free kick in the 83rd minute that was snapped up by Mariño and then almost resulted in a counterattacking goal for Valladolid, butÓscarpushed his shot just over the crossbar.

With the Nuevo Zorrilla on their feet and roaring every single clearance from the home side, the Pucela saw out the match to complete a monumental 90 minutes of football, which could well be the difference that keeps Barcelona from retaining their league title.

Barcelona will look to regroup when they resume Champions League play on Wednesday in their second leg Round of 16 tie versus Manchester City.