Barcelona vs Las Palmas, La Liga: Final Score 1-2, Sloppy Barça deservedly lose at home

Barcelona will remain on top of the La Liga table for one more weekend but have now gone three straight league games without a win thanks to a 2-1 defeat against Las Palmas at the Montjuïc Olympic Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The club’s 125th anniversary celebration game was spoiled by a Las Palmas side who competed hard and played very well, taking advantage of Barça’s incredibly sloppy play to pick up three huge points in their early battle against relegation.

FIRST HALF

The word that best describes Barça’s first half performance is wasteful. From the very beginning the home team ruined several promising attacks with bad decision-making and execution up front, often choosing the wrong pass or missing easy balls to put their forwards in great goal-scoring positions.

The Catalans also suffered thanks to a very well-prepared and dangerous Las Palmas side that played with great intensity with and without the ball from the start, with former Barça striker Sandro Ramírez the main source of danger for the visitors as he used his pace and strength to create havoc time and time again on the right wing.

Las Palmas came close at least twice to taking the lead, and another former Blaugrana in goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen barely had anything to do other than saving a shot from Pedri that led to a disallowed Raphinha goal for offside.

Speaking of Raphinha, the Brazilian ended up having the best chance for either side just before halftime when he hit the crossbar with a beautiful strike inside the box, but the ball wouldn’t go in and the halftime whistle came to end the first period.

The game was goalless at the break and Barça were not playing at their best, and Hansi Flick’s side needed plenty of improvement in and out of possession in the second half to find the net and secure the three points.

SECOND HALF

Flick sent on Lamine Yamal at halftime looking to prove that magical spark that Barça needed in the final third, in what was the coach’s second substitution after being forced to replace Alejandro Balde early in the first half due to a scary-looking throat injury — from which the young left-back recovered a few minutes after coming off.

Before Yamal could have any impact on the game, however, the hosts found themselves behind: Las Palmas did a beautiful job building from the back on a goal-kick, breaking the Barça high press and finding Sandro all alone on the right wing, and the forward fired a rocket into the bottom corner to score against his former club just four minutes into the half.

Flick didn’t waste much time trying to change the outcome from the bench, using his final three substitutions just five minutes after Sandro’s goal as Héctor Fort, Frenkie de Jong and Ferran Torres came on looking to ignite the comeback.

Barça’s urgency and intensity increased, and their pressure finally paid off at the hour mark as Raphinha fired a rocket into the bottom corner from the edge of the box and scored a beautiful equalizer to bring the team — and the crowd — back into the contest.

But Las Palmas were not affected by sudden change in momentum and continued to play their game, and gave Barça a sucker punch when a long ball from the right wing found the run of Fábio Silva, who was quicker to the pass than Fort and found the bottom corner to put the visitors ahead for a second time.

The home team tried to answer quickly and created two excellent chances with Yamal and Raphinha, but Cillessen made a couple of big saves to keep Las Palmas ahead. Urgency started to become desperation as we reached the final 15 minutes, and Barça looked more and more frustrated as they continued to struggle to find a second goal.

Both teams were given a sixth change at the death due to the new concussion substitution rule in place this season, and Flick used his to send on Pau Víctor for Pau Cubarsí to have one more body in attack to try and rescue at least a point.

Barça certainly tried to put crosses into the box and fire shots on goal, but never came close to troubling Cillessen in added time and the final whistle came to confirm Barça’s first home loss of the season.

This was a deserved defeat and a terrible overall performance, with incredibly sloppy play in attack from start to finish and a lot of individual mistakes at the back. Real Madrid can now go top of the table if they win their two games in hand, and Barça have to make a very tough trip to Mallorca in just three days in desperate need of a win.

Not a great anniversary weekend, it turns out.