Catalans Stay Top Via Four Goal Thriller

FC Barcelona managed to stay top of La Liga after drawing a four-goal thriller 2-2 away at RCD
RCD
Mallorca on Tuesday night.

The Catalans were on a high following their 3-2 comeback win over Celta Vigo last Saturday.

Once more, however, they fell behind to supposedly inferior opposition with the hosts striking early on eight minutes through Vedat Muriqi.

Raphinha, who for a change was allowed to play the full duration of the tie, replied with a stunning left-footed strike approaching half time.

In stoppage time of the first half, though, Adbon Prats sneaked by Ronald Araujo and managed to get a foot on the ball to slide it past a grounded Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

Barca labored to equalize again, with Joao Felix hitting the post on 55 minutes when he let off a shot from far out.

Not long after, a rarely-benched Robert Lewandowski entered the fray as did Lamine Yamal.

On his first break of note, 16-year-old Lamine Yamal seemed to have won a penalty when falling in the box. A VAR review saw the decision overturned, and this was probably the right decision with replays showing that there was a little contact with the winger’s foot from Jose Copete.

A quarter of an hour from full time, a slick move from the visitors resulted in Barca levelling the proceedings.

Lamine Yamal found Raphinha running into the area, and the Brazilian made sure he ended his evening with a goal and assist by setting up Fermin Lopez.

Lewandowski cleverly left the ball by dummying it for one of the breakout stars of the summer on the Blaugrana’s preseason tour of the US, and Lopez made no mistake from close range to be the hero of the evening.

With Barca failing to find a winner through seven minutes of added time, they still went home with a point and managed to keep their lead in La Liga above Catalan neighbours Girona who play Villarreal on Wednesday.

Barca will have an eye on that match, plus what Real Madrid do against Las Palmas before they themselves return to the pitch to take on Sevilla at home Friday night.