Barcelona suffered a first home La Liga defeat against Las Palmas in 53 years on Saturday afternoon, falling to a 2-1 score-line at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys.
This was a first loss at the hands of Las Palmas of any kind since 1991, with the Catalans haunted by a number of their former players in the opposition rank.
Chief among them was Sandro Ramirez, who gave the visitors a shock but not undeserved lead early in the second half. Jasper Cillessen ensured that Barca’s xG of 2.32 was decisively not met, with Mika Marmol also impressing at left-back.
Raphinha did equalise for Hansi Flick’s side, but Fabio Silva quickly put Las Palmas into a lead that they ultimately did not relinquish.
How the game unfolded
The hosts’ dominance of the ball from the start was to be expected, but Las Palmas threatened a couple of times in the early stages, when Sandro’s cutback went unfulfilled and shortly afterwards as Silva and Javier Munoz both missed the ball in the box.
There was a strong hand from Cillessen in the Las Palmas goal to deny Fermin Lopez in the midst of that, although the former Barca stopper later flapped at a cross that almost gifted Pau Cubarsi and Gavi a sight of goal. Fermin also fluffed his lines in a good moment, with things failing to fully click. Just shy of half an hour in, Cubarsi couldn’t stretch enough to connect with Raphinha’s inviting free-kick.
Even with Barcelona controlling possession, it wasn’t a backs-to-the-wall job for the island visitors, as Alberto Moleiro forced Inaki Pena into action, albeit a relatively routine save, and Munoz firing just wide with a shot across goal.
The best chances of the first half both went to Barcelona shortly before the break, Cillessen saving low to his right from Pedri’s edge-of-the-box drive and Raphinha turning in the rebound from an offside position, and then Raphinha clipping the top of the bar after being played in by Gavi and cutting back onto his preferred left foot.
Barca paid the price after the restart for not taking those chances when Las Palmas pulled off the ultimate team move to take the lead. The ball started in their own six-yard box, playing out of that tight space and up the pitch. Kirian Rodriguez played the final pass to Sandro, who then drilled low past Pena from the right-hand corner of the penalty area.
The response to falling behind was an onslaught of pressure that resulted in Raphinha equalising after an hour, a moment of brilliance from the Brazilian rather than any sort of Las Palmas lapse. Having drifted centrally, he collected the ball 20 yards out and powered a strike into the bottom corner.
But parity didn’t last long at all because a single sweeping pass from Munoz in midfield took Barcelona’s defence out of the game. Silva raced onto it through on goal and managed to keep his composure to finish beyond the reach of Pena.
As time wore on, Cillessen made further saves to deny Lamine Yamal, making his return from injury off the bench, and Raphinha, the latter a spectacular tip over the crossbar. Stoppage time appeals for a penalty following a slight nudge on Pau Victor correctly fell on deaf ears, while Robert Lewandowski having to check his movement for a square ball played behind him gave Alex Suarez just enough to time to get back and block what threatened to be a dramatic equaliser.
Formed on 29 November in 1899, Barcelona were celebrating their 125th anniversary, a century-and-a-quarter – and one day – after Joan Gamper hosted a meeting attended by the club’s first group of players that changed the history of football.
Barca’s kit choice here was a nod to that. This season’s blue and red halves home shirt is already inspired by 1899, just as it was for the centenary kit in 1999, but the club went a step further for the anniversary game by ditching blue shorts for white, which were the norm until 1910.
Unfortunately, what should have been a home banker against a team struggling at the wrong end of the table left a sour taste on the occasion.
Barcelona have hugely missed Lamine Yamal. Remarkably, they have won every La Liga game this season that he has started (11) and none that he hasn’t (4).
The generational 17-year-old sprained an ankle during the Champions League win over Red Star Belgrade in early November and was tellingly absent as the Catalans then took only one point from subsequent La Liga fixtures against Real Sociedad and Celta Vigo. As a substitute, he couldn’t stop Barca sinking to a 4-2 defeat against Osasuna in September and it was the same here.
Yamal appeared at half-time in place of Pablo Torre, which did seem to sharpen Barcelona’s attacking output. But, after the best part of a month out, it was clear he wasn’t up to full speed and was unable to do it all on his own this time.
What appeared to be a fairly innocuous body check from Sandro midway through the first half left Alejandro Balde in a heap on the floor. The Barcelona left-back caught his opponent’s shoulder to the throat and was visibly struggling to catch his breath, even throwing up.
Balde was carted off to be replaced by Gerard Martin, who actually knocked Sandro clean off his feet when there was a similar attempt to block his path before the end of the half. Welcome news later emerged during the interval that the player had recovered.
