Valencia beats Barcelona 3-1; Lewandowski farewell

Valencia beat Barcelona 3-1 at Mestalla on Saturday, May 23, in the final round of the 2025-26 LaLiga season, with the match quickly framed as Robert Lewandowski’s last game for the club. LaLiga’s official match summary said Valencia came from behind after Lewandowski scored first, then won through second-half goals by Javi Guerra, Luis Rioja and Guido Rodríguez. FC Barcelona’s official website described the striker’s finish as a goodbye goal, while broadcaster and platform highlight packages on May 24 used similar language around his departure. ### Why was this match treated as a farewell for Lewandowski? FC Barcelona said on May 16 that Lewandowski would leave at the end of the season after announcing his departure on his own social media channels. The club said the Polish striker was ending a four-season spell and called it “the most incredible chapter” of his career. FC Barcelona’s match page for the Valencia game then carried the line “Lewandowski says goodbye on 120 goals,” tying the result directly to his exit. (laliga.com) ESPN’s highlight package also described the game as Lewandowski’s “final game with the club,” while DAZN titled its German-language recap “Lewandowski trifft zum Abschied,” or “Lewandowski scores in farewell.” ### How did the game itself unfold? LaLiga said Lewandowski gave Barcelona the lead before Valencia turned the match in the second half. (fcbarcelona.com) The official league summary named Javi Guerra, Luis Rioja and Guido Rodríguez as Valencia’s scorers and said the win left Valencia ninth in the table on 49 points. Valencia’s results page lists the match as a 3-1 home win over Barcelona on Saturday, May 23, with kickoff at 21:00 local time. (fcbarcelona.com) Barcelona’s official match center also shows the fixture at Mestalla on the same date in Matchday 38. ### What do the official and media clips show about the framing? YouTube and official league video pages posted over May 23-24 centered both the scoreline and the departure angle. LaLiga’s own video headline called it a “big victory” for Valencia and summarized the comeback from Lewandowski’s opener. (laliga.com) DAZN’s upload foregrounded the farewell in its title, and ESPN’s version did the same in its description. (laliga.com) The wording matters because it does not come only from fan reaction or secondary commentary. Barcelona’s official site, LaLiga’s official site and two major highlight distributors all presented the match as both a final-day defeat and a sendoff for Lewandowski. ### What is the clearest verified takeaway from the result? Valencia closed the season with a comeback win over the league champion, while Barcelona’s final league match became part of Lewandowski’s exit story. (laliga.com) LaLiga’s official summary provides the cleanest match account: Barcelona led through Lewandowski, Valencia replied through Guerra, Rioja and Rodríguez, and the home side finished ninth with 49 points. May 24 coverage then extended that account into a departure narrative. The most direct confirmation came from Barcelona itself, which had already announced Lewandowski’s exit on May 16 and then labeled his goal at Mestalla a goodbye strike at the end of a four-year stay. ### Where does the story go next? FC Barcelona has already published Lewandowski’s departure notice, so the next concrete step is the club’s formal transition beyond his four seasons and 120 goals. (laliga.com) The match evidence is now fixed across Barcelona’s official site, LaLiga’s match summary and May 24 highlight packages from DAZN and ESPN, which are the primary public record of the farewell framing around the 3-1 loss at Valencia. (fcbarcelona.com)