Las Palmas crack the Barcelona code in Spain's La Liga

Staff WritersAP
Camera IconBarcelona have been stunned by Las Palmas, beaten at home for the first time this season. (AP PHOTO) Credit: AAP

Barcelona have lost at home for the first time this season, the Spanish league leaders stunned 2-1 by 14th-placed Las Palmas.

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

But they have now gone three rounds of La Liga without a win.

"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. 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."

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It was the first time the modest Canary Islands club won at Barcelona since the 1971-72 season and just their third victory at the Catalan club overall. Las Palmas' other visits to Barcelona have ended in defeat 34 times, with three draws.

Sandro Ramirez, a former Barcelona youth player, capped a fine five-pass buildup starting from their own box as they masterfully undid Barca's high pressure in the 49th minute.

Raphinha had already hit the crossbar in the first half before he levelled 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.

But Barcelona were caught pushing forward for a second when Fabio Silva controlled a ball from Javi Munoz and sent a shot bouncing past Inaki Pena and into the corner of the net in the 67th.

Atletico Madrid are up to second after Antoine Griezmann scored one of the goals of the season in a 5-0 thumping of Real Valladolid.

The forward exchanged a one-two with Julian Alvarez and used a sleek touch of the inside of his boot to roll the ball with him as he spun before dinking it over the goalkeeper.

Atletico also got goals from Alvarez, Clement Lenglet, Rodrigo de Paul and Alexander Sorloth.

Elsewhere, Espanyol beat Celta Vigo 3-1 to end a streak of four league losses and Alaves drew 1-1 with Leganes.

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