Barcelona slipped to a third successive league defeat as Valencia blew the La Liga title race wide open with a 2-1 win at the Camp Nou.
Barcelona endured a nightmare first-half, with Ivan Rakitic diverting the ball past the despairing dive of Claudio Bravo after 26 minutes to give Valencia the lead, before Santi Mina stunned the Nou Camp with another goal in the first-half stoppage time, giving Valencia a 2-0 advantage over Barcelona.
Barcelona were rescued when Lionel Messi netted his 500th goal for club and country, just after the hour mark, but all efforts to find another equalizer were not rewarded before the 90 minutes.
Just over a month ago, Barca had a nine point lead at the top of the table, but now Atletico Madrid are level points with Barca and, remarkably, Real Madrid are now just one point behind, having seemed down and out .
With this win, Valencia are now up to 12th after their second win in a row.
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