Blunt Barcelona stumble to Malaga as Manchester City await in Champions League

Lionel Messi and his Barcelona teammates were left feeling frustrated by Malaga at Camp Nou on Saturday. David Ramos / Getty Images

BARCELONA // Barcelona missed the chance to go top of the Primera Liga after a shock home defeat to Malaga ended their 11-match winning run on Saturday.

The Catalans, playing ahead of Real Madrid’s home game to Villarreal on Sunday night, stay second after only their second home defeat and fourth loss of the season.

It was not the preparation coach Luis Enrique wanted ahead of his side’s Uefa Champions League visit to Manchester City on Tuesday for the first leg of their last-16 tie, but it will be the manner of the performance that will be as concerning to him as the result.

His much vaunted attacking trio of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar were all out of form and unable to inspire a revival after Juanmi Jiminez had scored what would be the only goal of the game in the eighth minute.

Normally, Messi plays in the centre of Barca’s forward line, but the Argentine played on the right with Luis Suarez in the more central role.

It clearly did not work as Barca looked lacklustre in attack and Malaga held firm to claim the three points much more easily than they could have possibly anticipated.

“I hope this game was just an accident, but we’ll know that in a few weeks,” Enrique said.

“In the first half we played more or less well. In the second half, we didn’t have balance, no control, played too much through the centre.”

Celta Vigo, who inflicted Barca’s other home defeat in November, did the same and held onto a 1-0 lead.

Before that, the Catalans had scored in every home league game for the previous three years, the fact they have drawn a blank in front of their own fans twice in a matter of three months will worry Enrique as the season begins to build towards its climax.

Malaga were the first team to take points off Barca this term in a goalless draw in their fifth game when Enrique’s side did not muster a single shot on goal.

They at least managed that yesterday, but were frustrated by poor finishing and the flag of a linesman, which drew boos from the watching 78,276, all bar 34 of them home fans. Lionel Messi said before the game that the defeat at Sociedad at the start of January had been a turning point, that attitudes had changed for the better and his side’s 11-game run of wins reflected that.

His coach Enrique, surprisingly, did not agree with Messi’s suggestions that there had been a change in attitude, but said the atmosphere around the club had improved since their last defeat as they built up momentum and closed in on Madrid at the top of the table.

Barca enjoyed their usual domination of possession yesterday and they had sufficient time to get back into the game after falling behind when Dani Alves under hit a pass back to Claudio Bravo with his shin.

Striker Juanmi, 21, ran onto the weak, looping ball, took it past the Barca goalkeeper and rolled it into the net.

It was only the seventh goal Barca had conceded at home in 12 league matches.

Alves has been agitating for a new Camp Nou contract and may well get one given his club cannot sign players in 2015 because of the transfer embargo they are under from Fifa over breaches of rules around the transfer of under-18 players, but a once highly regarded player is considered a liability by many fans. Malaga, beaten 2-0 by Barça’s neighbours Espanyol last week, were so compact in defence that all 10 outfield players were usually standing within a 30-metre radius on the pitch.

They were also effective with quick-counter attacks and came close to adding a second when Ricardo Horta and Sergi Darder both saw their attempts saved just after the half hour.

Barca made second-half changes: Pedro for Iniesta and Javier Mascherano for Alves.

A Pedro shot hit the side netting in the closing stages, but Barca could not muster a goal to continue their run of poor performances in the early 4pm games in Spain.

Worse is they have given arch-rivals Madrid the opportunity to open a four-point lead at the top of the table today.

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