Staff Reporter.
Barcelona moved to within a point of fourth place in the Spanish La Liga table with victory at Mallorca.
Luuk de Jong scored the winning goal with a header at the back post in the first half from Oscar Mingueza’s cross.
Xavi’s side, who were without a number of first team players because of Covid and injuries,dominated for large periods but were often frustrated.
De Jong was the main threat, hitting the woodwork twice in the first half, including once with a bicycle kick.
Mallorca pushed for an equaliser late on when Dani Rodriguez’s teasing ball was headed inches over the bar by Fer Nino, before Marc-Andre ter Stegen was forced into a smart save to deny Jaume Costa.
But the hosts, sitting 15th in the table, were unable to keep out Barcelona, who have closed the gap on fourth-placed rivals Atletico Madrid.
“I feel delighted, really happy we won today, especially with my goal, which was important for the team. The most important thing is the win. It’s been a tough first half of the season and it’s a good step by winning this game today,” De Jong said after the match.”
Barcelona were missing 17 players in total, including regulars Dani Alves, Ousmane Dembele, Jordi Alba, Philippe Coutinho, Gavi and Serginho Dest.
“Luuk’s an exemplary professional. There’s talk about him leaving, but he works hard and sacrifices himself for the team,” Xavi said after the match. “He’s an amazing professional. I am happy with him. Of course I consider that he could stay, he was useful today. We will see in the future, everything is just a hypothesis for now.”
Earlier this week, Xavi said it was “crazy” that La Liga were allowing the game to go ahead given the state of the teams’ respective squads.
But his young players, with an average age of 24 years and 201 days, managed to get the job done.
Ahead of kick-off, former Mallorca and Barcelona star Samuel Eto’o made a guest appearance.
A mural of Eto’o was unveiled outside the Estadi de Son Moix and he was applauded by both sets of fans in the stadium.