Depay and Coutinho strike late to maintain Xavi's winning start

Xavi made it back-to-back LaLiga wins following his appointment as Barcelona head coach as late goals from Memphis Depay and Philippe Coutinho secured a 3-1 win over Villarreal.

The former Barca midfielder oversaw a 1-0 win over Espanyol last weekend after taking over the reins from Ronald Koeman, but it looked like he would be denied another three points at Estadio de la Ceramica when Samuel Chukwueze cancelled out Frenkie de Jong's opener.

Depay had other ideas, though, stroking home with two minutes remaining to spark jubilant celebrations from Xavi on the Barca bench, before Coutinho added a third from the penalty spot in stoppage time.

The result puts seventh-placed Barca seven points behind leaders Real Madrid, who have a game in hand, while Villarreal stay 12th.

Dani Parejo had been lucky to avoid a red card inside two minutes for an ugly challenge on Sergio Busquets, while Abde Ezzalzouli – making his first start for Barca – saw a header tipped onto the crossbar by Geronimo Rulli.

Depay missed two glorious opportunities and Gavi struck the post as the visitors dominated the opening 30 minutes.

Pau Torres spurned a glorious chance to open the scoring shortly after the half-hour mark, heading over an unguarded goal after Marc-Andre ter Stegen had completely missed a corner.

Second half

Barca went ahead five minutes after the interval when De Jong tapped into an empty net after Depay's close-range flick had been saved, the goal awarded by the video assistant referee after an initial offside flag.

Villarreal thought they had secured a point with 14 minutes remaining when Chukwueze clipped past Ter Stegen for his first LaLiga goal of the campaign.

But Depay came to Barca's rescue, superbly bringing down a long ball, rounding Rulli and sliding in from close range in the 88th minute.

Substitute Coutinho added gloss to the scoreline in stoppage time, slotting past Rulli from the spot after he had been brought down by Juan Foyth.