A stunning 73rd minute strike from 16-year-old 'boy wonder' Lamine Yamal saw Barcelona secure all three points against a plucky Real Mallorca. The Palma side at the moment are playing their best football of the season and deserved at least a share of the spoils.
A Barcelona side plagued by injuries and suspensions found it tough going against a rock-solid defence who mopped up just about everything that came their way. In the first half, Copete was alleged to have clipped Raphinha and another muppet referee, Iglesias Villanueva, after consulting the VAR monitor, signalled a penalty. Ex-Manchester City captain Iikay Gundogan stepped up and his telegraphed spot kick was saved by Rajkovic.
Then in stoppage time Muriqi was hauled down by Yamal. Guess what? Unlike the Barcelona penalty decision, there was no VAR consulted whatsoever as the referee took the easy option and blew for half time. Of course, us Spanish football aficionados know, there are different rules when it comes to Real Madrid and Barcelona!
After the break, Mallorca kept up their possession football as Barcelona struggled to break through. Then came the game-changers for Barcelona, with the introduction of their new Brazilian striker Vitor Roque and goal machine Robert Lewandowski.
By now Barcelona were getting more and more frustrated and were looking for an individual moment of magic, and it came courtesy of a brilliant strike from Yamal (tipped to be the next Messi). Once again the mighty Barcelona, now an average Barcelona, had to rely on an adolescent to get them out of jail.
The 30,000 crowd in the 50,000-capacity Olympic stadium suddenly woke up and the whistles of descent became cheers of happiness. In the end Mallorca looked knackered after their Herculean performance. Just to rub salt into the wounds, Lewandowski did a Tom Daley-esque dive near the end and the referee never even gave him a yellow card for simulation. That’s now our 11th away defeat of the season, but we lost to a team who were unconvincing and will have a tough job beating Napoli in Barcelona in the Champions League next week.
Up next for Mallorca is a possible banana-skin game against second-bottom Granada in the Son Moix on Saturday at 2pm. Missing will be our midfield, tattooed, hod-carrier Samu Costa who picked up his fifth yellow card.
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Agree the Muriqi foul was more worthy of a penalty than the one Barcelona were awarded, though neither really serious fouls. As for Lewandowski, that was pathetic, not worthy of a player of his standing, and definitely worth a booking.