BARCELONA: La Liga leaders Barcelona lost 1-0 to Leganes on Sunday with defender Sergio Gonzalez’s early header enough to stun the wasteful hosts who lost their second consecutive league game in front of their own fans.

Elsewhere, Atletico Madrid pull­ed level on points with the Catalans with a 1-0 victory of their own against Getafe earlier on, their 11th straight win across all competitions.

While Barcelona have been excellent in the Champions League with five wins in six games, the defending champions have struggled in La Liga for over a month, with only one victory in their last six league matches.

Barca remain top of the La Liga standings with 38 points, level with Atletico — who they host on Saturday — and one point ahead of Real Madrid in third, with both their title rivals having a game in hand.

It was Leganes’s first ever win at Barcelona and left them 15th in the table on 18 points.

“It was a messed-up game, it’s impossible to be happy. I think we started the game half asleep,” Pedri told DAZN.

“We woke up, we created chances but we didn’t have the spark we needed to get the goal...“We have to be better in front of goal if we want to win points, we’re in a bad run in the league and we have to turn it around.”

Leganes took the lead from a corner after four minutes when visiting captain Gonzalez rose unmarked at the near post to fire an unstoppable header past goalkeeper Inaki Pena.

Barca immediately went after the equaliser but, despite dominating proceedings throughout the match with over 80% possession, they were clueless as they sought to overcome a disciplined and well organised five-man Leganes defence, spurning a handful of opportunities.

They failed to hit the target with 16 of their 20 shots in the game and when they did, they hit a wall in Leganes goalkeeper Marko Dmitrovic who made three spectacular saves in the first half.

To make matter worse for Barca their Golden Boy Lamine Yamal hurt his right ankle during the match and will be out for three to four weeks.

“Tests carried out this morning revealed a grade 1 injury to a ligament in the ankle,” Barcelona said in a statement on Monday.

Earlier on Sunday, Diego Simeone’s Atletico continued their winning run across all competitions with a deserved home triumph thanks to Alexander Sorloth’s goal.

The Norwegian target man came off the bench to head home the winner in the second half for his seventh league goal this season.

“I’ll repeat it, I’m boring, I won’t change — until the last day, we’ll go game by game,” Simeone told reporters when asked if his team could challenge for the title.

“I always say the best result is 1-0 because you work hard in defence and you’re effective in attack, if you win 4-3 there are things you have to improve.”

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2024