Las Palmas stuns league leaders Barca on their 125th anniversary

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Las Palmas celebrated a surprise 2-1 win at La Liga leaders Barcelona on Saturday, spoiling the host’s 125th anniversary celebrations.

Sandro Ramirez gave the visitors the lead early in the second half and although Raphinha equalized, Fabio Silva secured three points and took his team to 14th place.

Barcelona are still four points ahead of champions Real Madrid, but Los Blancos, who host Getafe on Sunday, have played two fewer games than Hansi Flick’s side.

The Catalans are now without a win in three league games, having previously won eleven wins in twelve games in the top flight.

Barcelona wore white shorts as part of their anniversary celebrations, as they did at the beginning of their history.

To mark the occasion, they held a gala in the city on Friday evening. It was founded on November 29, 1899, but failed on Saturday afternoon.

The Catalans were able to bench teenage star Lamine Yamal after he recovered from an ankle injury.

Former Barcelona goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen made a strong save to deny Fermin Lopez in the early stages and Las Palmas showed enthusiasm on the counter-attacks.

Barca defender Alejandro Balde had to leave the pitch with a concussion in the first half after a collision with Sandro and was replaced by Gerard Martin.

Las Palmas went close when Alberto Moleiro fed Javi Munoz, who shot wide, while at the other end, Jules Kounde fired a shot over the goal.

Raphinha came closest to a breakthrough in the first half when he scored from an offside position after Cillessen Pedri parried and hit the crossbar after Gavi passed it to him.

Flick threw Yamal in for Pablo Torre at the break, hoping the winger would give Barca the advantage after an even first half.

Las Palmas took a surprise lead at the start of the second half when Kirian Rodriguez passed to Ramirez, who shot the ball into the goal from the edge of the penalty area.

Raphinha quickly hit back for Barcelona with a powerful long-range shot, but Las Palmas were soon back in the lead.

Silva ran on to Munoz’s long ball and fired past Inaki Pena to restore the Canaries’ lead with his fifth goal in eight league games.

Cillessen made a good save to deny Yamal as Barca sought an equalizer and Viti made a brave block to deny Pedri.

Las Palmas survived eight minutes of stoppage time, with Dutch centre-back Cillessen again parrying Yamal and two defenders desperately trying to block a late chance from Robert Lewandowski to secure the visitors’ win.

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