LaLiga
Alaves upset dashes Barcelona's 100-point hopes
Barcelona's pursuit of a 100-point season in LaLiga was halted by a 1-0 defeat to Alaves, which hauled itself out of the relegation zone thanks to Ibrahim Diabate's goal.… Show More
Barcelona's pursuit of a 100-point season in LaLiga was halted by a 1-0 defeat to Alaves, which hauled itself out of the relegation zone thanks to Ibrahim Diabate's goal.
Having seen his team clinch its second straight title with a 2-0 Clasico win over Real Madrid, Hansi Flick made eight changes to his line-up for the trip to the Estadio de Mendizorroza.
Those alterations resulted in a flat performance from the Blaugrana, who could have gone behind when Abde Rebbach's ferocious effort deflected wide in the 21st minute.
Alaves did go in front a minute into first-half stoppage time. After a corner provoked a scramble in the area, Antonio Blanco headed the ball back into the danger zone, and Diabate outmuscled Marc Bernal to find the bottom-left corner.
Diabate saw a header repelled by Wojciech Szczesny early in the second half as Barca continued to toil, with Alaves still carrying the greater attacking threat.
The offside flag went up when Angel Perez struck the post, and the champion was unable to carve out an equaliser despite the introductions of Ferran Torres, Pedri and Joao Cancelo from the bench.
The result means Barca cannot match the all-time LaLiga single-season points record, while Alaves jumps all the way to 15th in the table with 40 points, with four teams tied on 39 behind it.
