Barcelona showcased their resilience as they twice battled back to secure a hard-fought 2-2 draw against Mallorca on Tuesday, preserving their undefeated status in the LaLiga season.
With this result, Barcelona climbed to 17 points in the LaLiga standings. However, their league leadership could be challenged on Wednesday by Girona, who trail by just one point and are set to face Villarreal, as well as Real Madrid, who currently have 15 points and will host Las Palmas.
Barcelona midfielder Oriol Romeu expressed his concerns about the team’s recent performances, stating, “The game got stuck from the start. We’ve had two games with a bit of a bad feeling, and we need to improve. We are giving too many chances. The fact that they are counter-attacking so easily makes us run a lot of meters. We need to improve on this.”
The hosts capitalized on their early pressure, taking the lead after eight minutes when Vedat Muriqi pounced on a poor clearance from Barcelona’s goalkeeper, Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
Barcelona, however, responded with determination. Raphinha restored parity with a powerful shot into the bottom left corner in the 41st minute. Despite this, Mallorca managed to regain the lead in stoppage time before the halftime whistle. Abdon Prats capitalized on a superb long clearance from goalkeeper Predrag Rajkovic and a well-placed header by Muriqi, slotting the ball into the net.
Mallorca adopted a more cautious approach in the second half, which allowed Barcelona to seize control of the game. Barcelona’s substitute, Fermin Lopez, capitalized on Raphinha’s precise low cross from the right to level the score at 2-2 in the 75th minute.
Barcelona’s coach, Xavi Hernandez, pinpointed defensive errors as a key issue in the match, stating, “The problem was our defensive errors, these are improper mistakes that shouldn’t happen, especially in this type of tight, intense match. We conceded too much. I think we had the game under control after the equalizer, we had a chance to make it 2-1 several times. We didn’t win today because of our mistakes.”
Looking ahead, Barcelona faces a challenging fixture against Sevilla on Friday before traveling to Porto for their second match in the Champions League group stage.
