It was not a pretty one, but Barcelona managed a 2-0 victory on their visit to Las Palmas on Saturday to retain La Liga’s top spot for another week.
Dani Olmo came into the game at half-time to galvanise the Catalans who had been poor in the first half at Estadio Gran Canaria. He scored the first goal to break the deadlock and showed Barca head coach Hansi Flick he is ready to step up and has left his injury worries behind him.
Las Palmas had gone into the match on a six-game winless streak in La Liga, but they managed to stay in the game up until stoppage time when Ferran Torres, another substitute, sealed the three points with his 11th goal of the season, a remarkable figure given his secondary role in the team.
Here, The Athletic breaks down the main talking points of the game…
Dani Olmo, the game-changer
“The guy who scored their first goal destroyed us as soon as he came into the pitch,” Las Palmas captain Alex Suarez told DAZN in his post-match interview.
He was right. Olmo was the difference-maker on an off-night for Barcelona’s attackers. In the first half, Flick’s team lacked composure and patience, leaving the manager exasperated. Olmo came on straight after the break.
There is nobody else at Barca who attacks the inside pockets like Olmo. For his goal, he stepped into the opposition’s box to receive the ball, glided through centre-back Mika Marmol with his control and then dribbled past Suarez, flicking the ball to his left foot. A shot at the top corner of Jasper Cillessen’s goal topped it off.
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It was Olmo’s first goal for the club since last November. Staying fit has been a problem in his debut season at Barcelona and this month, he returned from his latest three-week injury.
“His goal was key,” said Flick about Olmo’s opener in his post-match press conference. “If he hasn’t played more this season it has been because of injuries, and now there were players more in-form than him. But tonight it was his turn, and we are delighted with Dani.”
After the goal, Olmo performed his trademarked ‘Dame Time’ celebration, inspired by Milwaukee Bucks’ star Damian Lillard. With a Copa del Rey semi-final and the Champions League round of 16 coming up, the 26-year-old is back at the right time.
A mixed night, but Yamal still gets another assist…
Lamine Yamal was far from his best, especially in the first half. He lost possession 21 times in the match — more than any Barcelona player — and felt frustrated by the hard tackles he received and were not given as fouls, as he showed in a post on Instagram after the game…
However, Flick knew it was not a night to write him off. Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha were also struggling, which made Yamal’s spark more needed than ever.
He turned up after the break knowing he had a point to prove. Yamal started taking on his marker, Las Palmas’ left-back Alex Munoz, and his persistence was rewarded with the opening goal.
Yamal fell to the ground after a block from Munoz, but quickly stood up and asked for the ball to lead Barca’s counter-attack. He got away from Dario Essugo and sent a perfect pass around Javi Munoz and inside the box towards Olmo, who did the rest.
It was Yamal’s 12th assist in La Liga this season — no player has more. Across all competitions, he has 15 assists in 33 matches.
“In 2025, I want to score more goals and do it in all games if I can,” Yamal said in December in an interview with the club’s media channels. His last goal in La Liga came in October, when he scored in the Clasico 4-0 win at the Santiago Bernabeu.
While the 17-year-old figures out his goalscoring, he is managing to add assists to his game, so surely Flick will not have many complaints about his teenage prodigy.
The VAR controversy that could have changed it all
In the 80th minute of the match, Barca players thought they might be dropping points in Las Palmas.
The hosts claimed a penalty after a potential handball from Eric Garcia, who had blocked a shot from Suarez. As Barcelona’s defender landed on the ground, the ball hit the back of his arm.
Protests from both sides lingered on for several minutes, and VAR officials eventually told the pitch referee Carlos Del Cerro Grande to go look at the screen.
Del Cerro Grande assessed the incident, and after some reviews, he concluded it was a handball. However, VAR officials warned him that there might be a previous offside to take into account and advised Del Cerro Grande to check it.
The offside was clear, which raised questions about why the referee was brought to the VAR screen in the first place, given that La Liga has the semi-automated offside technology that spotted the action at first glance — as shown during the game’s broadcast.
Las Palmas’ manager Diego Martinez complained to the referee just after the final whistle, asking what was the point of going to the video screen if there was already an offside.
After a troubled week in La Liga, debates around refereeing will not fade away in Spain.
(Top photo: Florencia Tan Jun/Getty Images)
