Barcelona’s comfortable victory over Celta Vigo was overshadowed by a serious injury to Victor Valdes which could signal the end of the goalkeeper’s Nou Camp career.
Valdes had already announced his irrevocable decision to leave Barca when his contract expires at the end of the season, but his campaign is already over after injuring ligaments in his right knee in an innocuous incident as he made a routine save from Fabian Orellana’s free-kick.
He appeared to land badly after palming the ball into the air and then diving on it at the second attempt, and was clearly in agony as he was stretchered off the field.
Valdes was later seen leaving hospital on crutches and Barca confirmed last night he would need an operation on his anterior cruciate and will be out for six months.
It now leaves 38-year-old backup Jose Manuel Pinto as Barcelona’s first-choice goalkeeper at a crucial stage of the season.
Valdes’ World Cup is also over at a time when he had been considered for the starting line-up due to Iker Casillas’ ongoing lack of playing time at Real Madrid.
The game itself was chiefly notable for Neymar ending his sixmatch run in front of goal with a brace, while Lionel Messi added his eighth in four games to complete the scoring.
The outcome never looked in doubt, with Barca on top from the opening whistle and having the ball in the net after three minutes, only to see Messi’s strike from an Andres Iniesta pass ruled out for offside.
Less than two minutes later, however, the deadlock was broken as Celta’s risky offside trap this time failed, allowing Messi to release Alexis Sanchez who in turn squared a low pass into the middle, giving Neymar a simple tap-in from close range for his first club goal in six weeks.
More goals were quickly threatened as Neymar hit the side-netting and Messi forced a good one-handed save from visiting keeper Yoel, before Valdes’ injury put a dampener on proceedings.
The second arrived after half an hour, with Iniesta brilliantly splitting open the Celta defence with a slide-rule pass to Messi, who rounded Yoel before slotting home with his right foot as the angle narrowed.
Playing against his former club, substitute Pinto retained Barca’s advantage early in the second half by making an excellent double save to deny Augusto Fernandez and then Santi Mina.
Although the pace had dropped from the game, the outcome was soon fully confirmed as Neymar added his second, receiving a long crossfield pass from Sanchez and cutting inside from the left wing and firing a low shot which deflected off Andreu Fontas to give Yoel no chance.
Sanchez should have made it four after being played through by a wonderful pass from substitute Pedro, but the Chilean took too long over his shot and Jonny Castro was able to make a block.
Pinto gave Barca a scare by kicking a clearance straight at Mario Bermejo and then colliding with the goalpost as the ball rebounded narrowly wide.
Jordi Alba came close with a low long-range strike and Pinto made solid stops from Castro and Mario Bermejo to preserve his team’s clean sheet, and the game gradually meandered towards an uneventful close with all Barca thoughts turning towards Valdes.
