On the road and trailing for a long time in Las Palmas on Thursday evening, FC Barcelona managed to win, thanks in particular to the winning goal scored by Gündogan in stoppage time (1-2, 19th day of La Liga).
As in its match won with forceps on December 20 against the red lantern Almeria (3-2), FC Barcelona did not show a very encouraging face Thursday evening, on the occasion of its trip to the lawn of Las Palmas. Faced with tenth in the standings (before kick-off), Xavi’s players nevertheless managed to reverse a very poorly started situation, to finally win in stoppage time of the game (1-2, 19th day of League). Las Palmas was not paid for his efforts.
However, the locals did indeed open the score, through Munir, formerly of the Catalan house (0-1, 12th). A minute earlier, Barça had suffered a first blow with the exit due to injury of Cancelo (11th). A disastrous first period for Xavi’s men, trailing by the time they returned to the locker room. The coach, however, found the words to re-motivate his team since ten minutes after the start of the second act, Torres brought his team back up to par (1-1, 56th).
The penalty that changes everything
Everything ultimately came down to a twist of fate, with a mistake from Sinkgraven at the dawn of stoppage time (90th + 1). The Dutch defender from Las Palmas thus conceded a penalty which Gündogan transformed without trembling to offer victory to the Catalans (1-2, 90th + 3). A real breath of fresh air for Barça which regains third place in La Liga, seven points behind the Real Madrid-Girona duo, and with three points ahead of Athletic Bilbao, its first pursuer.
