Barcelona were stunned at the Nou Camp by newly promoted Alaves in their La Liga encounter on Sunday. Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Andres Iniesta started on the bench for the defending champions as they crashed to a dispiriting loss, which leaves them at fourth spot in the table.
Barcelona manager Luis Enrique's tactic of benching his superstars, with an eye on next week's Champions League clash against Celtic, backfired as Alaves brought Barcelona down to earth. Brazil’s Deyverson opened the scoring for Alaves in the 39th minute but Jeremy Mathieu equalised from a Neymar corner.
Alaves hit back with Ibai Gomez netting the second to leave Barcelona struggling. Messi, Iniesta and Suarez were brought on in the second half but it was a little too late as Alaves held on to take all three points on offer.
With this loss, Barcelona are now three points behind first-placed Real Madrid who beat Osasuna 5-2 earlier in the day. This was Alaves' first win in a league game against Barcelona since 2000.
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