A Jeremy Mathieu header was enough to secure victory for the Blaugrana as they maintain the advantage and 4 points clear over their rivals Real Madrid for top of La Liga after a hard fought match in Balaidos. In a match where it was all Celta Vigo attacking and poor finishing from Barcelona, it would be one of those matches that Barcelona had to wait until the last few minutes for it to be defined.
The hosts almost took advantage in the 11th minute. Larrivey's low stinger from an angle was enough for Claudio Bravo to save in what turned out to be a great match for the Chilean goalkeeper. The away side almost drew first blood 4 minutes later when Lionel Messi's shot was saved by Sergio Alvarez, which allowed Neymar to go for the follow-up, however it went over the top corner of the goal.
In the 31st minute, poor defending from Barcelona and Dani Alves allowed Nolito a chance on goal, but again Bravo was able to challenge the forward with his feet to cleanly win the ball. The home side had one more chance before the break from Orellana as he delivered a low cross on to Larrivey, in which the striker was unable to put in the back of the net as his shot went soaring over Barcelona's goal.
In the second half, Barcelona had a goal wrongly called offside as Adriano squeezed through his compatriot Neymar and delievered a delightful finish into the far corner, only for the linesman to call it off when the Brazilian was clearly level with the last man. More opportunites came for Barcelona however throughout the second half as in the 54th minute, Andres Iniesta was able to feed Luis Suarez out wide, and attempted to find Messi to finish at the near post. However, the Argentine was not able to find the target.
Barcelona finally broke the deadlock from Jeremy Mathieu in the 73rd minute. Following an amazing challenge from Pique to keep Celta from scoring, Barcelona were awarded a free kick a minute after. Xavi's free kick allowed Mathieu who at the back post, crashed a diving header into the top corner past Sergio as the Frenchman has now scored back to back following his goal in El Clasico 2 weeks ago. It was enough for the Catalans to secure all 3 points and now look after a hard fought away match in Vigo, they will now face Almería next weekend while Celta Vigo takes on Granada.