Barcelona fans jeer team after draw with lowly Granada
BARCELONA HEARD from the fans again after their chances of successfully defending the Spanish league title took another hit yesterday.
Barcelona were jeered at home following a 3-3 draw against second-to-last Granada, a setback that saw the Catalan club move 10 points behind leaders Real Madrid, who defeated second-place Girona 4-0 on Saturday.
Barcelona trail Girona by five points and are three ahead of fourth-place Atletico Madrid, who lost 1-0 at Sevilla.
The draw is likely to add more pressure on Barcelona coach Xavi Hernández, who recently said that he would not return after the end of the season.
“It was already tough for us in the league, and now it’s two points tougher,” Xavi said. “It’s a big gap, but we are not going to throw in the towel. We have to stop making mistakes.”
Barcelona were heavily favoured to win against a Granada team that has only one win in their last 13 matches in all competitions.
Teenager Lamine Yamal was the man of the match for Barcelona, scoring twice.
Lamal opened the scoring in the 14th minute before Granada rallied with goals by Ricard Sánchez in the 43rd and Facundo Pellistri in the 60th.
Robert Lewandowski equalised in the 63rd, and Ignasi Miquel put the visitors ahead again in the 66th before Yamal levelled the match with a low shot into the corner in the 80th.
Granada have not won in five straight league matches, with three losses and two consecutive draws in its last two games. They stayed in 19th place, seven points from safety.
SEVILLA REBOUND
Sevilla continued their recovery with a 1-0 win over Atletico that ended a 10-match winless streak at home and moved them further away from the relegation zone.
Isaac Romero scored a 15th-minute winner to give Sevilla its second straight league victory after a run of five winless matches that included four losses. Sevilla hadn’t won in eight league games, matching their worst ever winless streak in the competition from back in the 1960s.
The victory jumped Sevilla to 15th place, six points from the relegation zone.
Atletico increased their winless streak to three matches in all competitions and saw their title chances in the Spanish league diminish. Diego Simeone’s team stayed in fourth place, 13 points from Madrid.
Atletico were coming off a 1-0 loss to Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey that ended a 28-game unbeaten run at home across all tournaments. Before that, they needed a stoppage-time equaliser to draw 1-1 at Real Madrid in the league. Atletico had eliminated Sevilla 1-0 in the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey at home in January.