Trailing 2-1 at half-time, FC Barcelona ended up defeating Valencia on Monday, outnumbered for more than 45 minutes, thanks to a hat-trick from Robert Lewandowski at the end of the 33rd day of La Liga.
The Polish striker allowed the Blaugranas to overthrow a young Valencian team reduced to ten men while they were leading, scoring three goals in the second half (49th, 82nd, 90th 3) to bring his total to 16 goals this season.
Barça (2nd, 73 points) thus regains its place as runner-up to Real Madrid (1st, 84 points) at the expense of its Catalan neighbor Girona (3rd, 71 points), its next opponent on Saturday, who had provisionally taken second place of the ranking after his victory in Las Palmas (2-0).
This success for the moment prevents Real from being mathematically champion, despite an almost decisive lead of eleven points with only five days to play.