Lamine Yamal was Barcelona’s savior in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League round of 16 against Newcastle United. The 1-1 draw felt like a victory for Hansi Flick’s side as the team arrived at St James’ Park physically.
The star of the show was 18-year-old Bala Star, who scored from the penalty spot in the final minutes of the game (90+6 minutes) after Dani Olmo was fouled. This proved not only Ramin’s influence, but also his ability to impose penalties.
How many times has Yamal been penalized?
On Tuesday, the young player faced a score that seemed to condemn him to yet another defeat. But at a crucial moment in the final stages of the match, with the ball and a penalty in front of him, he did not fail and avoided another comeback on Wednesday at the Spotify Camp Nou.
The truth is that Lamine has just saved Rose with a wonderful goal against Athletic Club at San Mams, and in the previous game he scored his first hat-trick against Villarreal. Now, with a penalty kick, he has revealed a pattern that has been repeated.
Yamal began to take responsibility for penalties, both for Barcelona and the Spanish national team, especially in the 2025-26 season.
Aside from the penalty shootout, he didn’t miss a shot and scored two goals in his home country’s colors in the 2025 UEFA Nations League final semi-final against France.
Similarly, Barcelona only missed one penalty. Most recently, in a Liga 2025-26 match against Girona FC on February 16th, he played against goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga, and while trying to score, the ball hit the post, so the wound is still raw.
Last year, he beat Augusto Batala’s goal against Rayo Vallecano in La Liga on August 31st, and beat Rubalo Valles against Real Betis on December 6th.
According to Transfermarkt and Statmuse, in the Champions League he scored a goal against Konstantinos Tsolakis’ Olympiakos FC on 21 October 2025, and another goal against Newcastle.
He also scored three penalties for the Spanish Under-17 national football team in 2022 and 2023: on October 16, 2022, in a friendly against the Hungarian Under-17 national team (goal against Ron Yaakobishvili); on February 10, 2023, in the Algarve competition for the Under-17 He also converted from the penalty spot against goalkeeper Zan Trivnevi in a match against the Dutch national football team (goal against Kiyani) and against the Serbian national football team under-17s in the UEFA European Under-17 Championship on 21 May 2023.
Now, Yamal has 20 goals and 15 assists this season, including four goals and three assists in six Champions League games.
Meanwhile, Barcelona’s next match will be against Sevilla FC on March 15th at the Spotify Camp Nou in La Liga.
