Valencia 1 - Barcelona 3 (FT Report)

VALENCIA, June 15 (Primera Liga) - Barcelona kept alive their hopes of European football with a convincing victory over fallen champions Valencia, who ended the game with nine players.

With their club`s presidential elections taking place back in Catalonia, the Barcelona players were possibly playing for their futures and responded with three vital points.

Anything other than victory was likely to deny Barca European football for the first time in their illustrious history.

But former Valencia favourite Gaizka Mendieta eased Barca`s nerves with the opener a minute before the break, the midfielder scoring from the penalty spot.

Another spot-kick, this time from Patrick Kluivert, doubled Barca`s lead in the 72nd minute before his fellow Dutchman Marc Overmars made it 3-0 with 11 minutes remaining.

Valencia, who by this time had seen John Carew and Amedeo Carboni sent off, grabbed a late consolation through a Juan Sanchez penalty three minutes from time.

The result means Valencia now cannot grab a Champions League spot for next season and is a sorry finale to their campaign.

Valencia`s title-winning season was built on their impressive home form where they lost just one of 19 league matches at the Mestalla.

However this year has been a different story on the east coast and Sunday`s defeat was their sixth home loss of the season.

Valencia coach Rafael Benitez was deflated by the result.

``I'm disappointed, because you always think you can get something, you build a team to do so and you're angry and disappointed when it doesn't happen.''

This season has been a fall from grace for a side who began the season with hopes of defending their title, but who have had to settle for a place in next year's UEFA Cup.

``It's not a failure, it would only be that if you don't do everything possible. Now we have to see if we have more hopes and more desire next season.''

The game turned on an incident just before half-time which saw Valencia reduced to 10 men and Barcelona take the lead.

Barca were awarded a penalty when Mendieta was impeded inside the box.

The decision did not go down well with the home side and Norwegian striker Carew was handed his marching orders for taking his complaints too far.

Mendieta, who is on loan at Barca from Lazio, whom he joined from Valencia, rubbed salt into the wounds by rolling the resulting penalty into the net.

Valencia had enjoyed the better of the openings until that point with Carew and Pablo Aimar going close, but with a man less, they were left chasing the game in the second half.

Aimar had a chance to draw the teams level just after the hour-mark before Valencia were reduced to nine men when Carboni brought down Luis Enrique inside the box.

Carboni was last man and it came as no surprise to see referee Evaristo Puentes Leira produce the second red card of the match.

Kluivert took over the penalty duties from Mendieta and he made no mistake from the box, side-footing the ball to the right of Santiago Canizares.

The Valencia goalkeeper, who is a reported summer transfer target for clubs in England, was beaten again soon after by Overmars.

Picking the ball up unmarked some 30 yards out from goal, the flying Dutchman moved towards the area, shifted the ball onto his left foot before driving his shot through the legs of a defender and past a helpless Canizares.

Despite the defeat, Valencia have at least managed to secure a UEFA Cup place and they salvaged a little pride as well three minutes from time through Sanchez`s penalty.

Barca coach Raddy Antic was delighted with his side`s showing.

``You have to recognise the good work of these professionals, who have shown they have the pride to win a game when they need to.

``Barcelona looked for the victory and deserved to win the game,'' he said.

Barca will go into the final weekend hoping to snatch a UEFA Cup spot, something that looked highly unlikely a few weeks ago.

To do that they need to beat Celta next week and hope Athletic Bilbao don't win in the Santiago Bernabeu against Real Madrid, who are playing for the league title.

``We have to carry on like this because we have a great objective ahead of us.''

``I hope there is a great atmosphere in the Nou Camp against Celta because we will be playing for a place in Europe,'' added Antic.