GIRONA, Spain (AP) — Lamine Yamal missed a penalty as Barcelona lost 2-1 to Girona on Monday, denying them a chance to overtake Real Madrid at the top of La Liga.
It was Barça’s second loss in less than a week, leaving them second in the table, two points behind Madrid.
A win would have put them ahead of their arch-rivals, but instead a 4-0 loss to Atletico Madrid in last week’s Copa del Rey created a crisis for coach Hansi Flick.
Barcelona took the lead early in the second half, but suffered their second loss.
Just before half-time, Yamal’s spot-kick hit the post, but 14 minutes into the second period, Pau Kvarsi met Jules Kounde’s cross from the right and perfectly placed his header into the top corner of the goal.
The goal was Barcelona’s 100th in all competitions this season, making them the second club after Bayern Munich to score a century in Europe’s top five domestic leagues.
However, Girona roared back into the game just three minutes later.
Barcelona’s João Garcia was already the busiest of the two goalkeepers, but he was unable to stop Tomas Lemar, who scored side-footed from close range after some great work from Vladislav Vanat on the left.
With both teams looking for a crucial second goal, Girona scored with three minutes remaining, substitute Fran Beltran scoring from inside the box with a low shot.
Girona’s Joel Roca was sent off in the final minute, but no further goals were scored.
With the win, Girona ended a three-game winless streak and moved up three places to 12th place, level with Getafe on points.
Only seven points separate the 11 clubs from 8th to 18th in La Liga.
___
AP Soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
