VAR overturns Yamal pen in Barcelona draw with Mallorca

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Xavi on Mallorca draw: Both goals were practically gifts

Xavi Hernandez talks about Barcelona's performance after their 2-2 draw against Mallorca.

Updated: Sep 27, 2023, 07:57 am

Barcelona twice fought back to secure a 2-2 draw at Mallorca on Tuesday, maintaining their unbeaten start to the LaLiga season, and might have had more if a penalty given to teenager Lamine Yamal hadn't been overturned by VAR.

Barca moved up to 17 points, but could be overtaken as LaLiga leaders on Wednesday by Girona, who are one point adrift and visit Villarreal, and Real Madrid, who have 15 points and host Las Palmas.

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"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," Barcelona midfielder Oriol Romeu told DAZN.

"The fact that they are counter-attacking so easily makes us run a lot of metres. We need to improve on this."

The hosts' early pressure paid off as they took the lead after eight minutes when Vedat Muriqi capitalised on a poor clearance from Barca's keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

Raphinha grabbed an equaliser with a powerful shot into the bottom left corner in the 41st minute, only to see Abdon Prats restore Mallorca's lead in stoppage time with a simple finish after keeper Predrag Rajkovic's superb long clearance and a Muriqi header.

"The problem was our defensive errors, these are improper mistakes that shouldn't happen, especially in this type of tight, intense match," Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez said.

"We conceded too much. I think we had the game under control after the equaliser, we had a chance to make it 2-1 several times. We didn't win today because of our mistakes."

Mallorca took their foot off the gas in the second half and substitute Fermin Lopez tapped home Raphinha's low cross from the right to make it 2-2 in the 75th minute.

Shortly before that, Yamal was tripped in the box while charging toward goal, but after initially pointing to the spot for a penalty, the referee checked the play on the pitchside monitor and determined that there had been no contact by the defender and waved off the penalty.

"At no moment does [the defender] touch the ball," Xavi said. "We have to see if there was contact, I thought there was a little. It seemed a penalty to me live. The referee went to the monitor and hasn't seen [a touch]. It is a really difficult decision for the referee."

Barcelona next host Sevilla on Friday.