Four days after beating Stade Brestois (3-0) in the Champions League, FC Barcelona returned to the Montjuïc stadium to face Las Palmas, as part of the 15th day of La Liga. A special match for Hansi Flick’s team since it comes the day after the 125th anniversary of the Blaugrana club. Beaten by Real Sociedad (1-0) and held in check by Celta Vigo (2-2) during its last two outings in the league, Barça had to get its head back on track. All without Lamine Yamal, back from injury, but who started the match on the bench.
Very quickly, Barça had the first opportunity of the match with Pablo Torre’s shift for Fermín López. His shot was stopped by Jasper Cillessen (6th). Las Palmas responded a few minutes later, with a ball stabbed behind the Catalan defense and Scott McKenna’s missed recovery near the penalty spot (11th). After 25 minutes of play, Barcelona suffered a big disappointment with the premature exit of Alejandro Baldé, following a violent shoulder blow from Sandro Ramirez to the throat. After long minutes on the ground, the Spanish left-back was evacuated on a stretcher. Just before half-time, Cillessen stopped Pedri’s powerful shot (44th), before his crossbar repelled Raphinha’s attempt (45th+2). The two teams finally returned to the locker room with a goalless draw (0-0).
Barça surprised by Las Palmas
Seeing the difficulties of his offensive animation, Hansi Flick chose to bring Torre out at half-time to bring in Lamine Yamal. Which did not frighten Las Palmas who even allowed themselves to open the scoring after a nice transition concluded by Sandro Ramirez (49th, 0-1), trained in Barcelona. With their backs to the wall, the Catalans were able to count on Raphinha, whose shot at the edge of the area left Cillessen no chance (61st, 1-1). And while the balance of power seemed to shift towards Barça, Fabio Silva took advantage of the poor alignment of the Catalan defense to beat Pena (67th, 1-2).
Barcelona subsequently increased their attempts on Cillessen’s goal, but the former Blaugrana goalkeeper quickly lay down on Yamal’s attempt (70th), before stopping Raphinha’s two strikes (71st, 82nd). THE Amarillos then held on until the end of the match to win on Barça’s field for the first time since 1986. This success (1-2) also allows them to breathe new life into the race to maintain jump to 14th position in the ranking. Opposite, the Blaugrana concede their third defeat in La Liga this season, the first at home. A bad operation that Real Madrid could benefit from, which could come back to within one point of Barcelona, in the event of a victory against Getafe on Sunday. The Madrilenians also have a late match to play.
