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Barcelona, the champions of the league, successfully started the Spanish football championship on Monday evening, defeating Celta Vigo 3-2 after a very intense battle. Barcelona scored the winning goal with about five minutes left to play until the end of the match.
2 – 3
42' [1 – 0] Fernando Baiano
55' [1 – 1] Samuel Eto'o
60' [1 – 2] Leo Messi
64' [2 – 2] Gustavo Lopez
88' [2 – 3] Eidur Gudjohnsen
87' Santos Iriney (Celta) was sent off the field
At the end of the first half, Celta took the lead - Nene broke through into the penalty area and shot towards the goal, Victor Valdes managed to deflect the ball, but it bounced to a free Fernando Baiano, who easily sent the ball into the empty net.
After the break, Barcelona took the initiative and managed to equalize the score in the 55th minute - Leo Messi made a perfect pass to Samuel Eto'o in the penalty area, and he easily defeated the opponents' goalkeeper. Just five minutes later, Messi himself scored a goal - being between three defenders in the penalty area, Andres Iniesta accurately passed the ball to Messi, who shot the ball into the bottom corner of the goal from about twelve meters away.
The intense battle continued and after four more minutes, Celta equalized the score, with G. Lopez scoring: the ball was passed to the edge of the Barcelona's penalty area during a penalty kick, G. Lopez bypassed the hesitant Barcelona defenders and with one touch directed the ball into the net.
However, the visitors from Catalonia managed to snatch three points - in the 88th minute, Deco passed the ball to E. Gudjohnsen in the penalty area, the latter stopped the ball with his chest and with a strong shot scored his first goal for Barcelona.
