MADRID:
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice as Barcelona tightened their grip on second place in La Liga on Tuesday with a 3-1 win at house to Celta Vigo.
However Barca’s victory was overshadowed by a nasty head harm to defender Ronald Araujo, who needed to be taken away in an ambulance within the sixty fourth minute of the match.
Araujo was lifted into the ambulance on a stretcher, sporting a neck brace. Barcelona confirmed the 23-year-old “suffered a concussion and has been taken to the hospital to bear additional testing”.
After the sport, Barca coach Xavi Hernandez mentioned: “The physician has advised us he’s acutely aware. He’ll spend the evening in hospital however he’s out of hazard.
“The physician mentioned we should not fear, that he’ll spend the evening in hospital as a precaution, nothing extra.”
Araujo’s harm got here after he and Gavi banged heads difficult for a similar ball. Araujo came upon for a number of seconds earlier than dropping to the ground as a involved Iago Aspas and Eric Garcia referred to as urgently for the medics.
The Uruguayan was put into the restoration place and after a couple of minutes, he was lifted into an ambulance that had pushed onto the pitch.
Aubameyang’s double on both facet of half-time got here after Memphis Depay had opened the scoring at Camp Nou. Celta pulled one again via Aspas however any hopes of a comeback have been dashed when Jeison Murillo was despatched off simply earlier than the hour.
“We have been efficient however we did not play effectively,” mentioned Xavi. “It was less complicated towards 10 males however we struggled towards 11.”
Barca transfer seven factors forward of Sevilla and eight in entrance of Atletico Madrid, with Sevilla and Atletico taking part in one another on the Wanda Metropolitano on Sunday.
Actual Madrid, who’ve already been topped champions, sit 9 factors away from Xavi Hernandez’s facet on the high of the desk, with a sport in hand.
Securing qualification for subsequent season’s Champions League final weekend means Xavi’s major goal has already been achieved however the membership’s dire monetary scenario means the staff can nonetheless not afford to let up.
Each place in direction of the highest of La Liga is price round seven million euros whereas qualifying for the four-team Spanish Tremendous Cup by ending within the high two is price one other eight million euros to the Catalans.
They need to have the runners-up spot sewn up after one other victory that owed a lot to Aubameyang, the 32-year-old scoring his twelfth and thirteenth objectives since becoming a member of Barcelona from Arsenal in January.
Aubameyang’s electrical early kind has slowed a bit of in current weeks however it’s arduous to think about a Barca participant who has made an even bigger contribution to their resurgence within the second half of the season.
Depay’s game-time has suffered because of Aubameyang’s kind however they each began towards Celta and it was Depay who gave the hosts the lead within the thirtieth minute, sweeping in after s very good run down the suitable by Ousmane Dembele.
Depay then turned supplier for Aubameyang’s first as he latched onto Jordi Alba’s via ball and crossed for his Gabonese teammate to complete on the flip 4 minutes earlier than half-time.
Three minutes after the restart, it was three as Dembele repeated his earlier trick, driving down the suitable, rolling left, this time for the sprinting Aubameyang to steer into the nook.
Aspas capitalized on a Barcelona error as Araujo was caught on his heels after Marc-Andre ter Stegen handed out to him within the penalty space. However eight minutes later, Murillo was despatched off for stopping Depay from going via and Celta’s momentum was gone.
Actual Betis had earlier stored their top-four hopes alive by easing to a 3-0 win away at Valencia. Willian Jose, Sergio Canales and Borja Iglesias all scored objectives within the second half.
Betis closed the hole to Atletico Madrid in fourth to a few factors, with Atletico taking part in a sport in hand away at Elche on Wednesday.
