Barcelona vs Mallorca, La Liga: Final Score 1-0, Lamine Yamal scores special winner as Barça take three points at home

Barcelona are back in second place in the La Liga table and will be just five points behind the leaders for at least the next couple of days thanks to a hard-fought 1-0 win over Mallorca at the Montjuïc Olympic Stadium on Friday night. Barça were missing several key pieces and they had a clear impact as the Blaugrana were never close to their best, but a special goal by Lamine Yamal was enough to separate the two sides and give Barça not only three crucial points in the table but a much-needed confidence boost ahead of the Champions League decider against Napoli.

FIRST HALF

The first 45 minutes followed the usual pattern of a Barça home game against a back five and a low block: lots of possession, lots of sideways passings, zero creativity and movement, no real chances. There was a whole lot of nothing going on at the Olímpic to begin the match, and Barça were playing at half speed with very little urgency or intensity with and without the ball.

But they were still given a golden chance to take the lead in the 24th minute when Raphinha was brought down by José Copete inside the box and the referee gave a penalty after a VAR review; Ilkay Gündogan stepped up to the spot where he’s usually very reliable, but the German took a poor penalty and Predrag Rajkovic made an easy save to keep the score as it was.

Mallorca were given a confidence boost with the penalty save and began creating danger on the counter, with the two strikers, Vedat Muriqi and Cyle Larin, using the size and power to force the Barça defense to make some crucial tackles and interventions one-on-one, with Iñigo Martínez especially important in a couple of occasions to avoid conceding a real chance.

Barça lost Raphinha towards the end of the half as the Brazilian was unable to continue due to the ankle knock he suffered on the play that led to the penalty, and his replacement Fermín López added some much needed juice to the game: his natural intense style increased the level of urgency of the players around him, and Barça started pressing higher up the pitch with real intent and came close a couple of times in the dying seconds, but they couldn’t find the final ball to unlock Mallorca’s well-organized backline.

At halftime the game was goalless and mostly boring as Barça had their familiar struggles against a parked bus and Gündogan missed the only real opportunity of the period for either team. The Catalans had some options on the bench to try and change the game, but they needed a lot of improvement to find the winning goals in the second half.

SECOND HALF

The game came to life to begin the second half, with Mallorca surprisingly sending bodies forward looking to catch Barça off guard with a more attacking approach to try and steal the lead. And they came close a couple of times, but the Barça center-backs continued to make important interventions to end dangerous attacks by the visitors.

The Blaugrana responded with a faster, more intense approach of their own and used long balls to counter Mallorca’s sudden high pressure, and the home team had two big chances: Lamine Yamal fired a rocket against the crossbar after a corner kick, and Gündogan missed another golden opportunity after a gorgeous one-two with Marc Guiu inside the box.

With the suspended Xavi watching from the stands his brother Óscar Hernández was the acting head coach and made two attacking changes at the hour mark, as Robert Lewandowski and Vitor Roque came off the bench looking to add the necessary scoring punch to break the deadlock.

Lewy and Roque maintained the higher level of energy and intensity from the team in the second half and were very aggressive without the ball while also improving the tempo of Barça’s passing. The Blaugrana entered their best spell of the game, but they were still in need of a moment of individual brilliance to finally break Mallorca’s resistance.

And that brilliant moment came with 20 minutes to go when Yamal received a pass from Lewandowski at the edge of the box, cut inside on his left foot and launched a sensational curling shot that found the top corner with no chance for Rajkovic. It was a truly special strike, and it brought a quiet Montjuïc to life.

Mallorca looked for an immediate response against a Barça side that initially allowed them to have possession and send crosses into the box, but the Catalans quickly reestablished control of the ball and looked to wrap up the win with a second goal as we reached the final 10 minutes.

The visitors made two attacking substitutions and changed to a back four for the dying minutes as they looked for a late equalizer, but the Blaugrana defense held strong and the final whistle came to give the home team all three points. This wasn’t pretty at all, but no one expected it to be. Barça were always going to struggle withut many of their best players and needed a moment of rare genius by Yamal to win it, but the win was all that mattered on this particular night. And they got it.

Up next, Napoli. Oh dear.

Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Kounde, Cubarsí, Iñigo, Cancelo; Christensen, Gündogan (Romeu 87’); Yamal, Raphinha (Fermín 37’), Félix (Roque 62’); Guiu (Lewandowski 61’)

Goal: Yamal (73’)

Mallorca: Rajkovic; González, Nastasic, Raíllo, Copete (Radonjic 82’), Lato (Costa 71’); Darder (Sánchez 71’), Samu, Morlanes (Rodríguez 61’); Muriqi, Larin (Prats 82’)

Goals: None