Lamine Yamal played a starring role as FC Barcelona started their LALIGA campaign with a 3-0 win over nine-man Real Mallorca on Saturday night.
LALIGA
Result: Mallorca 0-3 Barcelona
Date: 16 August 2025
Venue: Estadi Mallorca Son Moix
New signing Joan Garcia started between the sticks after being registered in time, while Manchester United loanee Marcus Rashford was named on the bench by coach Hansi Flick.
The visitors got off to the perfect start when Lamine Yamal carved out some space before sending a cross to the far post, where Raphinha was on hand to head home on seven minutes.
The champions were able to double their lead in controversial circumstances on 23 minutes when the referee put the whistle to his mouth and looked to blow, before Ferran Torres took advantage of the Mallorca players stopping and raced clear to slot home.
Mallorca were then reduced to ten players on 33 minutes when Manu Morlanes was given his marching orders after picking up his second yellow card of the contest.
It got worse for the home side six minutes later when they were reduced to nine players after Vedat Muriqi's yellow card for a high boot on Garcia was upgraded to a red card following a review on the pitch-side monitor.
The numbers games unsurprisingly worked against Mallorca coming out for the second half, as the Catalan giants continued to dominate and push for more goals but they were let down by their finishing.
Coach Flick decided to freshen up his side after 67 minutes by introducing Rashford for his debut in place of Torres, while Jofre and Gavi replaced Alejandro Balde and Marc Cubarsi.
Pedri nearly added to the scoreline with six minutes left on the clock as he carved out some on the edge of the box before unleashing a powerful strike that forced goalkeeper Leo Roman into a fine save.
Barcelona got their third goal in time added on as Yamal did well to skip past a couple challenges on the edge of the area before curling the ball into the top corner to seal a good win.
