Barcelona
Neymar, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez have been unimpressive of late in the La Liga. Pictured: Suarez, Neymar and Messi look stunned against Valencia.Reuters

Barcelona's season has been crumbling at a surprising rate. Their dream of winning the treble came to an end after their loss to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League, and their 2-1 loss at the Camp Nou to Valencia on Sunday in the La Liga, opens up the chance of them relinquishing their hold on the Spanish league as well.

Barcelona now lie tied on 76 points with Atletico Madrid, while Real Madrid are one point away from the top.

Barcelona had a huge chance to strengthen their position at the top of the table by defeating Valencia, and stretching their lead to four points, but they suffered a shock defeat at home.

It was one way traffic as Barcelona were enjoying =the lion's share of possession, with Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi showing their silky skills, but it was to no avail. Despite the possession, Valencia took the lead as Ivan Raktic scored an own goal in the 26th minute. Barcelona were soon in more trouble as Valencia's Lorenzo Santi Mina scored in the first minute of first half stoppage time to make it tough for the champions to come back into the game.

"We played a very complete first half, but we were unlucky and we needed it to win the game," Barcelona official website quoted Enrique as saying.

There was relentless pressure from Barcelona to score two goals in the second half, at least, and Messi delivered with a wonderful goal in the 64th minute, his 500th goal. Despite giving it their all in the remaining minutes of the half, Barcelona could not draw level. One has to applaud Valencia defenders, who looked solid to win the game for their side.

With this result, Barcelona have hit another low, as this is their third straight La Liga defeat. If they fail to pick up their game in the remaining five matches of the season, Atletico or Real could clinch the title. Enrique still remains positive that they can win the title.

"Now we have an incredible challenge in front of us. If we win the five remaining games we will be the champions. Today I think it was a difficult situation, but we knew we had to play a very good game, and we dominated all facets of play." Enrique said.

"This is the path forward. We can't win every single game by playing anyway we want, we have to have order and we have to be organised."

Barcelona vs Valencia highlights