NEW DELHI: Barcelona managed to secure a 2-2 draw against Mallorca on Tuesday, maintaining their unbeaten start to the LaLiga season. With this result, Barcelona moved up to 17 points in the league standings.
However, Barcelona's position as LaLiga leaders could be overtaken by Girona, who are one point behind and face Villarreal on Wednesday, as well as Real Madrid, who have 15 points and host Las Palmas.
Barcelona midfielder Oriol Romeu acknowledged the team's need for improvement, stating, "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. The fact that they are counter-attacking so easily makes us run a lot of meters. We need to improve on this."
Mallorca took an early lead in the match after Vedat Muriqi capitalized on a poor clearance by Barcelona's goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen in the eighth minute. Raphinha equalized for Barcelona with a powerful shot just before halftime. However, Abdon Prats restored Mallorca's lead in stoppage time with a simple finish after a long clearance and a Muriqi header.
In the second half, Mallorca's intensity dropped, and Barcelona substitute Fermin Lopez tapped home Raphinha's low cross from the right to make it 2-2 in the 75th minute.
Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez highlighted the team's defensive errors, stating, "The problem was our defensive errors, these are improper mistakes that shouldn't happen, especially in this type of tight, intense match. We conceded too much. I think we had the game under control after the equalizer, we had a chance to make it 2-1 several times. We didn't win today because of our mistakes."
Barcelona's next match is against Sevilla on Friday, followed by a trip to Porto for their second Champions League group stage match.
(With Reuters inputs)
