Barcelona 1-0 Malaga: Thomas Vermaelen saves the day as MSN reunite

After 253 minutes, Barcelona scored. It had been a long time coming, but Luis Enrique’s side had at last found away past Javi Gracia’s Malaga side. Luis Suarez’s cross dropped kindly to Thomas Vermaelen and the defender lashed into roof of the net to hand Barcelona their second successive win of the new season. 

Barça are now unbeaten in 16 La Liga games, with their last defeat coming against Malaga at Camp Nou in February. On that occasion Gracia’s side left with a 1-0 win, while the game earlier in that campaign at La Rosaleda had ended goalless. And for large parts of the game it looked like they’d complete another shut-out against Enrique’s side; then Vermaelen appeared. 

The Belgian was making his third consecutive league start for the club after a year of injury problems, while there was also a return to the starting line up for Neymar after his fight against mumps, teaming up with Suarez and Lionel Messi in a competitive game for the first time since the Champions League final. Sergi Roberto filled in for the injured Dani Alves at right-back. 

All the early running was made by Barça. Luis Suarez had the ball in the net inside the opening five minutes, heading home a corner, but referee Santiago Jaime Latre ruled it out for a push on Marcos Angeleri. Andres Iniesta’s driving run then caused problems, but a familiar pattern began to emerge where Barcelona couldn’t breach Malaga’s defence. 

At the other end, Juankar almost scored the goal of the season. With Claudio Bravo off his line, Malaga’s No.7 tried his luck from inside his own half, only for the ball to brush the top of the net on its way over the bar. 

Javier Mascherano — who has never scored a Barcelona goal — then hit the bar, before refereeing decisions took centre-stage. Miguel Torres appeared to handle the ball in the area when Neymar looked to skip by him, no penalty; Suarez then looked to be caught by Angeleri in the area, no penalty. Latre and his officials disappeared down the tunnel amid a sea of whistles. 

After the break, it became all about Carlos Kameni and Messi. The Malaga stopper was in fine form, denying Barça’s No.10 time and time again. First he made a fantastic save after Neymar had cued up Messi; then he made another stop as Messi looked to cut in from the right. Another two saves arrived from Messi before the deadlock was at last broken. 

Suarez’s cross was poorly cleared by the visitors and it dropped to Vermaelen, who had stayed up after a corner. He instinctively struck home 10 yards to secure his first Barcelona goal and end a year of injury pain. Few could deny its a moment he has worked for.