A second-half defensive error from Barcelona allowed Cadiz to register their first victory over the Catalans since 1991 in a 2-1 final on Saturday night at the Estadio Ramon de Carranza.
The hosts took an early lead when Barcelona failed to properly clear a corner kick, but some good fortune came for Ronald Koeman’s side in the second half when a Jordi Alba cross was diverted into in the home net by Cadiz defender Pedro Alcala.
The joy was short-lived, however, as Clement Lenglet messed up a throw-in, allowing veteran Spanish forward Alvaro negredo to put Barcelona to the sword, adding another chapter in Barcelona away woes this season in LaLiga.
As for Cadiz, their return to Spain’s top flight continues to impress, as they now own wins over both Real Madrid and Barcelona in the first half of the season.
Lionel Messi was back in Koeman’s starting XI after being rested for the midweek Champions League visit to Ferencvaros. Miralem Pjanic and Ousmane Dembele were back on the bench, while Frenkie de Jong and Philippe Coutinho each got the nod.
It had been 14 years since Cadiz last hosted Barcelona, and their reacquaintance started off with a bang, as Alvaro Gimenez gave the hosts a 1-0 lead inside the first 10 minutes. Alex Fernandez swung in a corner kick that was flicked on via header by Fali before reaching young Barcelona centre-back Oscar Mingueza, whose attempted headed clearance instead met the foot of Alvaro at the back post, making for an easy goal from close range.
Barcelona looked to respond and started mustering chances through Coutinho, Martin Braithwaite and a Messi free-kick, but for the large majority of the first 45 minutes it was pretty grim from the visitors from an attacking standpoint.
Koeman made a pair of changes to shake things up, with Pedri on for Mingueza and Dembele replacing the ineffective Coutinho. Barcelona started to penetrate the Cadiz area a bit more and they were finally able to break through thanks in part to some good luck.
Messi played a pass wide to Alba and the deep cross from the left-back deflected off the foot of Pedro Alcala and snuck inside the far post to bring Barcelona level at 1-1.
Barcelona have had their fair share of defensive mistakes this season and they committed another egregious one just minutes after levelling to gift Cadiz a 2-1 lead. An Alba throw-in was badly mis-played by Lenglet and goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen was not able to react fast enough to avoid Negredo from swooping in and scoring easily into an open net.
Sergino Dest was presented with an opportunity to pull his side level off a surgical pass from Sergio Busquets, but the young United States international missed wide.
Koeman went back to his bench, this time bringing on Trincao for Dest and Pjanic for Busquets and committing numbers forward, but they left themselves exposed in the back and it took a big Ter Stegen save to prevent Negredo from putting the nail in the coffin.
In the end, it mattered not, as the Cadiz defence did the heavy lifting to give the newly-promoted side another scalp from Spain’s big two.
2.- Cadiz: Ledesma, Iza, Fali, Marcos Mauro (Alcala, min. 31), Espino, Jonsson Augusto, min. 80), Bodiger, Alex, Perea (Adekanye, min. 80), Jairo (Alejo, min. 81), Alvaro Gimenez (Negredo, min. 62).
1.- Barcelona: Ter Stegen, Dest (Trincao, min. 77), Mingueza (Pedri, min. 46), Lenglet, Jordi Alba, Busquets (Pjanic, min. 77), De Jong, Coutinho (Dembele, min. 46), Messi, Griezmann , Braithwaite.
Goals: 1-0, min. 8: Alvaro Gimenez; 1-1, min. 57: Alcala (and); 2-1, min. 63: Negredo.
Referee: Soto Grado (La Rioja).
Yellow cards: Lenglet (Min. 61) for Barcelona, Alba (Min. 86) for Barcelona.
Red cards: None.
Stadium: Ramon de Carranza.
Attendance: 0.
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