Football
ESPN staff 7y

La Liga: Paulinho grabs late Barcelona winner; Atleti open stadium with win

New signing Paulinho scored in the 84th minute to give Barcelona a 2-1 victory at Getafe in La Liga on Saturday.

Barcelona had to come from behind to get their fourth straight league win after Gaku Shibasaki put the hosts ahead six minutes before the break, with his sweetly hit left-footed volley from outside of the box giving Marc-Andre ter Stegen no chance.

Barcelona found the equaliser after half-time through Denis Suarez, who received a pass from Sergi Roberto inside the box and fired a right-footed shot across keeper Vicente Guaita.

And Paulinho completed the comeback with six minutes remaining, the Brazil international collecting a pass from Lionel Messi outside the box, squeezing past two defenders and lashing an unstoppable shot past Guaita.

However, it wasn't all good news for the Catalans as Ousmane Dembele injured his hamstring after sprinting for the ball just after the 20-minute mark.

Atletico Madrid debuted their new stadium and beat Malaga 1-0 in on Saturday as Antoine Griezmann scored the first goal at the state-of-the-art Wanda Metropolitano.

The nearly 68,000 fans at the inaugural match in the stadium on the outskirts of the Spanish capital erupted when Griezmann converted a low cross from Angel Correa to score from close-range in the 61st minute.

The victory capped a day of festivities celebrating the stadium's opening game, attended by King Felipe VI. Afterwards, players went around the field greeting the fans in the stands.

The result moved Atletico to within four points of Barcelona.

Malaga, who have lost all of its matches, are now bottom of the table.

Meanwhile, Enis Bardhi cancelled out Rodrigo's 31st-minute opener to give Levante a 1-1 home draw against Valencia.

The Brazil-born striker put Valencia ahead just past the half-hour, sneaking a well-placed header past Levante keeper Raul from an Andreas Pereira cross.

But Bardhi would give the hosts a point 10 minutes later, the Macedonia midfielder controlling a poor clearance on the edge of the box before powering a low effort past Neto.

Veteran midfielder Joaquin scored twice as Real Betis beat struggling Deportivo La Coruna 2-1 in Seville.

The 36-year-old headed home his first in the 14th minute after a goalmouth scramble but the visitors equalised through Federico Cartabia.

The Argentinian's goal raised hopes that the visitors could go on to claim their first win of the new league season.

But Sanchez had other ideas and won the game 14 minutes from time when he latched onto a perfect through-ball from Jose Guardado and slotted the ball past Costel Pantilimon in the Deportivo goal.

^ Back to Top ^