Barcelona loses at home for 1st time this season, falling 2-1 to Las ...

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Barcelona lost at home for the first time this season when the Spanish league leader was stunned 2-1 by Las Palmas on Saturday.

Barcelona had played superbly in the first three months under new coach Hansi Flick and was flying high after convincing victories over Real Madrid in the domestic competition and Bayern Munich in the Champions League. It had won all eight home games overall.

But it has now gone three rounds of La Liga without a win. Prior to the loss to Las Palmas, it fell 1-0 at Real Sociedad and drew 2-2 at Celta Vigo.

Madrid, despite its own troubles especially in the Champions League, can now move ahead of Barcelona in the Spanish league. It trails Barcelona by four points with two games more to play.

Sandro Ramirez and Fábio Silva scored for the Canary Islands club on either side of Raphinha’s equalizer.

“I don’t care about scoring, I care about winning,” Raphinha said about his good performance that was unable to end his team’s slump.

“We have to take a hard look at what we are doing wrong,” he said. “We have slipped in our form and are letting games get away form us. We have our next game on Tuesday (at Mallorca), and we need to turn this around so we can win the league.”

It was the first time the modest club that wears all yellow uniforms won at Barcelona since the 1971-72 season and just its third victory at the Catalan club overall. Las Palmas’ other visits to Barcelona have ended in defeat 34 times, with three draws.

“We are thrilled because we have made history,” Sandro said. “When you start the season you think that these games are usually going to end in wins for the bigger side, but if there is one thing we believe in is our capacity to work hard all week to get results like this.”

Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal returned from a right ankle injury that had sidelined with for three weeks as a halftime substitute, but Jasper Cillessen saved his best shot. The Las Palmas goalkeeper also did well to palm a Raphinha free kick over his bar in the final minutes.

Sandro, a former Barcelona youth player, capped a fine five-pass buildup by Las Palmas starting from its own box as it masterfully undid Barcelona’s high pressure in the 49th minute.

Raphinha had already hit the crossbar in the first half before he equalized in the 61st. The Brazil forward took a short pass from Pedri just outside the area, skirted across the edge and drilled a shot between two defenders.

It was Raphinha’s ninth league goal of the campaign. Only teammate Robert Lewandowski, with 15, has scored more in the league.

But Barcelona was caught pushing forward for a second goal when Silva controlled a ball from Javi Muñoz and sent a shot bouncing past Iñaki Peña and into the corner of the net in the 67th.

The unexpected loss dampened Barcelona’s celebration of its 125th anniversary, which included the debut of its new mascot “Cat,” a large, yellow feline wearing its team kit.

Balde carried off after hard collision

Barcelona lost left back Alejandro Balde early in the game when he couldn’t continue after he crashed into Sandro at full speed. Balde appeared to hurt his upper chest or neck area when he ran into Sandro’s shoulder. He was carried off on a stretcher before being replaced by Gerard Martín.

___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer