Barcelona’s young player, Lamine Yamal, set a record when Barca fell in the 2023-2024 Champions League. Barcelona lost 2-3 to Antwerp on the last matchday of the 2023-2024 Champions League Group H preliminary round.
The Antwerp vs Barcelona match in the Champions League schedule took place at the Bosuilstadion Stadium on Thursday (14/12/2023). In the match against Antwerp, Lamine Yamal managed to record one assist for the goal scored by Ferran Torres in the 35th minute.
According to Opta, Lamine Yamal became the first 16-year-old player to be involved in a goal in the Champions League. Additionally, he became the youngest starter in Champions League history aged at 16 years and 83 days. This record surpassed Celestine Babayaro’s record in 1994, which was recorded at 16 years and 86 days when he became a starter.
Even though there are other Barcelona wonderkids such as Ansu Fati who started at the age of 16 years and 321 days, Yamal still has a special place in the club’s history. Even Lionel Messi, the Barcelona legend, has never recorded a similar achievement. Messi only made his debut as a starter in the Champions League when he was 17 years old on December 7 2004.
Meanwhile, Barcelona managed to win Group H of the 2023-2024 Champions League, even though the match against Antwerp did not success. Barcelona and Porto are the two representative teams from Group H who have entered the 2023-2024 Champions League. Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez revealed that the duel against Antwerp was not easy.
According to Xavi Hernandez, Antwerp played very aggressively, making Barcelona uncomfortable in implementing their strategy. “This is a difficult and tough match,” said Xavi Hernandez, quoted on the official Champions League website. “They played aggressively and defended well. We didn’t play well, we weren’t comfortable,” he said.
However, Xavi Hernandez explained, Barcelona has actually completed its mission as champions of Group H of the 2023-2024 Champions League. “We have achieved our goal by winning the group,” said the former Barcelona player. “We won when we visited our biggest rival, Porto,” said the 2010 World Cup winner with Spain.
Apart from that, Barcelona midfielder, Sergi Roberto, said it was disappointing to accept the reality of losing to Antwerp. “We came to win and this result really disappoints us,” explained Sergi Roberto. “Now we must immediately shift our attention and mentality to LaLiga where we cannot afford to lose many points.”
