Leganes have pulled off arguably the biggest result in the club’s history with a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over Barcelona at the Estadio Municipal de Butarque on Wednesday.
Barca took the lead through Philippe Coutinho’s skilful volley after only 12 minutes, but Leganes stunned their visitors with two goals in the space of just over a minute in the second half as Nabil El Zhar and Oscar Rodriguez capped a famous result and one of the biggest shocks in recent La Liga history to kickstart their campaign.
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The win is manager Mauricio Pellegrino’s first since taking charge of the team and only the second defeat Barcelona have suffered in their last 51 La Liga games, leaving them facing the prospect of falling behind Real Madrid when their main title rivals take on Sevilla later tonight.
It was the first of a number of half-chances for the unfancied hosts during the first half, but the difference between the two sides in the opening 45 minutes was the moment of quality provided by Coutinho to open the scoring.
Juanfran drew the first save from Marc-Andre ter Stegen which a deflected drive which the Barcelona keeper needed to claw away, while moments later Oscar completely fluffed his lines with a volley which dropped invitingly to him inside the area.