Author: Amrit Santlani
Mallorca – Barcelona – 2:2
After Real Madrid’s 100% winning record was broken by Atlético de Madrid recently, Barcelona had the chance to consolidate their lead, but Xavi’s men drew 2-2 with Mallorca. The point keeps Barça top, but Madrid are in action against Las Palmas and a win would put them ahead of their El Clasico rivals in the table.
Vedat Muriqi opened the scoring in the eighth minute to surprise the Catalans at the Iberostar Stadium on Tuesday. Brazilian Raphinha equalized, but Abdon Prats scored in first-half stoppage time to put Mallorca ahead before the break. Fermin scored in the 75th minute to salvage a point, while Pablo Maffeo was sent off in the 98th minute.
Marc Andre ter Stegen misplaced a pass that was well saved by Ronald Araujo, but Muriqi was on hand to score the first equalizer. Raphinha had a great individual chance to beat Predrag Rajković, but the Serb was ready to keep his team in the lead. The Brazilian was unhindered for the second time and scored the equalizer with a shot from outside the area to put the league leaders back in contention.
The Brazilian wasted a glorious chance when he received a pass from Ferran Torres, but shot wide. Just before half-time, Muriqi flicked the ball from the goalkeeper to Prats, who beat Ter Stegen and the hosts won 2-1.
João Félix hit the post after the restart, before the VAR overturned a penalty awarded to Barça when Lamine Yamal was brought down inside the area. Raphinha made up for his earlier miss in the 75th minute when he crossed into the area. Lewandowski cleverly passed the ball between his legs and Fermin leveled the score – 2-2! Maffeo was shown a straight red card at the end of injury time, and the hosts could only blame themselves for a late collapse. Raphinha was the MVP as he played the whole game and was involved in both Barça goals.
Seville – Almeria – 5:1
Sevilla beat Almeria 5-1 to move straight out of the relegation zone and into 11th place. En-Nesyri and Lukebakio scored in the 7th and 8th minutes respectively. In the 38th minute, Suso scored the third goal for the visitors and, at the start of the second half, Lamela scored the fourth. Suarez scored the Prestige’s goal from the penalty spot in the 71st minute, and Salas struck in injury time. Brazilian Fernando played the entire match for the hosts. For the visitors, Kaiki came on in the 64th minute and Leo Baptistão in the 72nd minute.