FC Barcelona beat Valencia 4-2 in a rare Monday evening fixture, although the win took a lot more work than the final result might suggest.

Despite scoring first, Barça found themselves trailing at the break in a total roller-coaster of a match. Fortunes took a turn for the better when the visitors had their goalkeeper sent off just before the break, but Barca needed to make the very best of the situation in the second half.

And they certainly did – and one man in particular. Robert Lewandowski took home the match ball home after his brilliant hat-trick sent the team back up to second place in the Liga table.

Barca got-off to a near-perfect start, capitalising on their early dominance the opening goal on 22 minutes. Raphinha whipped in a lovely cross and Fermin Lopez rose to glance the ball goalward with his head. It might have looked like Barca were in for a comfortable ride, but Valencia, who could already have scored when Peter Federico was clean through on goal, managed to turn the tables before an extremely eventful first half was up.

The first goal came off a blundered clearance by Ter Stegen that ended with Hugo Duro through on an empty goal. Not the way the German had hoped to celebrate becoming the foreigner with the most appearances for Barca.

The visitors’ second came from the penalty spot, Ronald Araujo bringing Peter down in the area and Pepula converting the kick. Things had turned complicated, but Barca were then delivered the bonus of playing the whole of the second half with an extra man.

Valencia keeper Giorgi Mamardashvili bodged a clearance of his own and in a desperate attempt to prevent Raphinha from exploiting the error he ended up handling the ball outside of his box. VAR advised the referee to take a closer look and, yes, it was a red card.