Barcelona substitute Sergi Roberto scored a late goal to rescue a 2-2 draw against Granada on Sunday after their winger Lamine Yamal became LaLiga’s youngest goalscorer at the age of 16 years 87 days.
Joao Felix had given Barca the lead in added time in the second half, but VAR intervened and decided that Ferran Torres was in an offside position when receiving a cross into the penalty box.
Granada forward Bryan Zaragoza scored twice in the first half to give the hosts a two-goal lead, but Yamal scored from close range before the break.
Barcelona is now in third place with 21 points from nine matches, one point behind Girona and three points adrift of leaders Real Madrid.
Meanwhile, Atletico Madrid is in fourth place with 19 points with one game remaining.
Yamal broke the League record held by Malaga’s Fabrice Olinga, who scored against Celta Vigo in 2012 aged 16 years and 98 days.
In August he set a record as Barca’s youngest debutant in an official match and then became Spain’s youngest international and goalscorer at the age of 16 years 57 days when he made his debut away to Georgia in a Euro 2024 qualifier in September.
Despite having a historic night, Yamal was withdrawn in the 76th minute after asking off.
Jules Kounde also left the match early adding to Barcelona’s injury list along with Robert Lewandowski, who left their Champions League win over Porto earlier on Wednesday with an ankle injury.
“We really dominated, we created chances and deserved more,” said Xavi after the match.
“But it was our own fault. The first in 20 seconds — we can’t play like that. They then got the second and you go against the grain from there. After that, we showed patience and dominated the game.”
“In the end, we deserved to win. One point is not enough.”
Barca coach Xavi Hernandez said Yamal and Kounde appeared fine, but they would be assessed in the coming days.
Goals from Yamal and Roberto rescued a point for Barca who struggled in the first half but dominated late on when Granada’s André Ferreira had to make a series of saves.
Zaragoza wasted two good opportunities to increase Granada’s lead through counter-attacks in the first half.
He also fired a powerful shot that hit the post in the 87th minute just after Roberto equalized for Barca by scoring first-time from Alejandro Balde’s cross.
Barca players and Xavi then complained loudly to the referee who disallowed Felix’s goal in added time because it was considered a controversial offside.
“I think we deserved more, but we have to pay for our mistakes. “Obviously we can’t perform on the pitch like that,” Xavi told DAZN.
“We were patient, we dominated. Maybe this was our game where we had the most ball and we had a lot of chances.
“Unfortunately we had to come back from 2-0 down after two counter-attacks. My overall feeling is good, but we lost two points.”
