Barcelona began the new year with a crucial victory, but it wasn’t easy as the Blaugrana had to wait until the dying moments to emerge as 2-1 winners from a tough battle against Las Palmas at the Gran Canaria Stadium on Thursday night. Barça were outplayed and fell behind in the first half but showed great team spirit to come back in the second half, with Ilkay Gündogan playing the part of late hero to give his team three massive points that send Barça to third place in the La Liga table.
FIRST HALF
The opening 10 minutes were a disaster for Barça, who lost one of their best players in João Cancelo to what appeared to be a knee injury, and conceded a goal after Las Palmas managed to easily pass their way through the Blaugrana defense and two former Barça players combined to put them behind as Sandro Ramírez’s cross was tapped home by Munir El-Haddadi to give the home team the lead.