Barcelona win overshadowed by Araujo injury, Betis drub Valencia
Pierre-emerick Aubameyang scored twice as Barcelona tightened their grip on second place in La Liga on Tuesday with a 3-1 win at home to Celta Vigo.
But Barca’s victory was overshadowed by a nasty head injury to defender Ronald Araujo, who had to be taken away in an ambulance in the 64th minute of the match.
Araujowaslitedintotheambulanceonastretcher, wearing a neck brace. Barcelona confirmed the 23-year-old “suffered a concussion and has been taken to the hospital to undergo further testing”.
Ater the game, Barca coach Xavi Hernandez said: “The doctor has told us he is conscious. He will spend the night in hospital but he is out of danger. The doctor said we shouldn’t worry, that he will spend the night in hospital as a precaution, nothing more.”
Araujo’s injury came ater he and Gavi banged headschallengingforthesameball.araujostumbled on for a few seconds before dropping to the floor as a concerned Iago Aspas and Eric Garcia called urgently for the medics.
The Uruguayan was put into the recovery position and ater a few minutes, he was lited into an ambulance that had driven onto the pitch.
Aubameyang’s double either side of half-time cameatermemphisdepayhadopenedthescoring at Camp Nou. Celta pulled one back through Aspas but any hopes of a comeback were dashed when Jeison Murillo was sent off just before the hour.
Barca move seven points ahead of Sevilla and eight in front of Atletico Madrid, with Sevilla and Atletico playing each other at the Wanda Metropolitano on Sunday. Securing qualification for next season’s Champions League last weekend means Xavi’s primary objective has already been achieved buttheclub’sdirefinancialsituationmeanstheteam can still not afford to let up. Every place towards the top of La Liga is worth around seven million euros while qualifying for the four-team Spanish Super Cup by finishing in the top two is worth another eight million euros to the Catalans.
They should have the runners-up spot sewn up ater another victory that owed much to Aubameyang, the 32-year-old scoring his 12th and 13th goals since joining Barcelona from Arsenal in January.
Aubameyang’s electric early form has slowed a litle in recent weeks but it is hard to think of a Barca player who has made a bigger contribution to their resurgence in the second half of the season.
Depay’s game-time has suffered as a result of Aubameyang’s form but they both started against Celta and it was Depay who gave the hosts the lead in the 30th minute, sweeping in ater s superb run down the right by Ousmane Dembele.
Aubameyang’s brace earned Barcelona an easy win against Celta, puting Xavi Hernandez’s side on course to secure a spot in the lucrative Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia with a second-place finish in La Liga
Depay then turned provider for Aubameyang’s first as he latched onto Jordi Alba’s through ball and crossed for his Gabonese teammate to finish on the turn four minutes before half-time.
Three minutes ater the restart, it was three as Dembele repeated his earlier trick, driving down the right, rolling let, this time for the sprinting Aubameyangtosteerintothecorner.aspascapitalised on a Barcelona error as Araujo was caught on his heels ater Marc-andre ter Stegen passed out to him in the penalty area. But eight minutes later, Murillo was sent off for preventing Depay from going through and Celta’s momentum was gone.
Meanwhile, Real Betis defeated Valencia 3-0 to end a four-match winless streak and keep alive their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League next season. It was a rematch of the Copa del Rey final won by Betis in a penalty shootout last month.
Willian Jose, Sergio Canales and Borja Iglesias scored a goal each in the second half to move fithplace Betis within three points of Atletico and four of city rival Sevilla. Granada edged past mid-table Athletic Bilbao 1-0 to move five points from the relegation zone ahead of the other mid-week games.
Alex Collado scored a 35th-minute winner for 16th-place Granada, which was coming off a 6-2 victory at 18th-place Mallorca.
Granada is unbeaten in four matches, since a 4-1 home loss to Levante in April. Eighth-place Athletic played a man down from the 85th ater Mikel Vesga was sent off with a second yellow card.