For Barcelona on Saturday night, it was Thomas Vermaelen, of all players, who succeeded where Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar failed in a 1-0 victory over Malaga.
The former Arsenal defender scored past Carlos Kameni 18 minutes from time at the Camp Nou to give Barca their second narrow victory of the new campaign.
The Belgian defender endured a nightmare debut season with Barca in 2014/15 despite being part of a treble-winning squad. Injuries limited him to a single league appearance.
“It is a great reward for him for the fight he had last year,” said Barca defender Javier Mascherano.
“I am happy for him because last year he couldn’t show his best football.
“The goals from the front three will come. The team generated a lot of chances, but we didn’t have much luck.”
Neymar was starting for the first time this season, after overcoming a bout of the mumps, and was reunited with Messi and Suarez up front.
Suarez was the first to have the ball in the net after just four minutes, but his headed effort was ruled out for a foul beforehand by the Uruguayan.
Malaga had stunned the Camp Nou with a 1-0 victory last season and they came within inches of taking the lead in extraordinary style as Juan Carlos’s effort from 60 yards flew just inches over the stranded Claudio Bravo’s goal.
Mascherano came close to being the unlikely man to break the deadlock when he headed against the crossbar moments later.
The home fans were incensed when referee Santiago Jaime Latre turned down two penalty shouts as Miguel Torres appeared to handle the ball inside the area before Marcos Angeleri brought down Suarez.
Kameni produced a trio of fine saves to deny Messi after the break.
Yet, for all his good work, Kameni was partly at fault for the goal. He could only parry Suarez’s cross from the left and the ball fell invitingly for Vermaelen to fire home from close range.
Gareth Bale, meanwhile, scored twice as Rafa Benitez got his first victory as Real Madrid coach with a 5-0 thrashing of Real Betis.
Madrid remain two points behind Barcelona.
Benitez’s side had been held to an embarrassing 0-0 draw by newly promoted Sporting Gijon last weekend, but there was to be no repeat as Bale headed home James Rodriguez’s cross inside two minutes.
Rodriguez fired an audacious free-kick from a narrow angle into the far corner of the net to double the advantage seven minutes before the break.
Bale turned provider at the start of the second period for Karim Benzema to head home the third before Rodriguez produced another spectacular effort with an overhead kick to make it 4-0.
Betis had a great opportunity to at least mark their visit to the Bernabeu with a consolation when Raphael Varane was penalised for upending Jorge Molina.
However, Madrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas made the most of his opportunity, despite the ongoing speculation that Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea could join the side in the coming days, by diving low to his left to save Ruben Castro’s penalty.
Bale had the final word with a fierce, left-footed effort that clipped the post on its way into the net.
Elsewhere in La Liga, Celta Vigo went top of the table as Nolito scored twice in a 3-0 win over 10-man Rayo Vallecano.
David Moyes’s Real Sociedad failed to find the net for a second consecutive game as they played out a 0-0 draw with Sporting Gijon.
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