Lamine Yamal is the Spanish team’s debutant and youngest scorer (16 years and 57 days, against Georgia). He also holds the record for precocity as the youngest player to debut in Barcelona’s first team (15 years and 290 days, against Betis). He lacked, in any case, that of the newest gunner. And all eyes were on the latest jewel of the Barça youth team against Granada: it was the last opportunity he had to steal the mark from Fabrice Olinga (16 years and 98 days, at Málaga) before the national team break and change his football to the Red.

2
André Ferreira, Carlos Neva, Miguel Rubio, Ricard Sánchez (Jesús Vallejo, min. 84), Álvaro Fernández, Miquel, Myrto Uzuni (Puertas, min. 58), Bryan Zaragoza, Gonzalo Villar (Njegos Petrovic, min. 58), Gumbau and Lucas Boyé (Callejón, min. 73)
2

Ter Stegen, Alex Balde, Cancelo, A. Christensen, Koundé (Ronald Araújo, min. 44), Gavi, Gündogan, Fermín López, Lamine Yamal, Ferrán Torres and João Félix
Goals 1-0 min. 0: Bryan Zaragoza. 2-0 min. 28: Bryan Zaragoza. 2-1 min. 46: Lamine Yamal. 2-2 min. 85: Sergi Roberto.
Referee César Soto Grado
Yellow cards Bryan Zaragoza (min. 65), Miguel Rubio (min. 67), Jesús Vallejo (min. 85), López (min. 91) and Cancelo (min. 97)
“Lamine is playing. She has minutes. But we have the responsibility to let him have fun on the field. We want him to score, but we will be happy with him, whether he does or not,” said Deco, Barcelona’s football director and the main person responsible for Yamal extending his contract until 2026 (1,000 million clause).
Lamine Yamal complied. And, at 16 years and 87 days, he became the youngest scorer in the history of the League. “I’m very happy. It is an honor for me. A bittersweet taste for the tie. At that moment I was thinking more about coming back, more than about the record,” said Yamal. Granada did not allow Zaragoza’s joy to be complete. Essentially, the culprit was Bryan Zaragoza. Like Lamine Yamal, the forward also arrived at the duel against Barça with the spotlight on him. The attacker appeared in Los Cármenes as the most dribbler player in the League (26), the third best in Europe, behind Leroy Sané (32 at Bayern Munich) and Eberiche Eze (27 at Crystal Palace). After the game, Zaragoza passed Eze, but Sané stretched the distance: 35 for Bayern and 28 for Granada. “I play to dribble, not to run after the ball. “I’m from the neighborhood… My style is to play face to face and have the ball,” explained the winger of the Granada team, who will join, along with Ansu Fati, the national team’s call for the matches against Scotland and Norway, as a substitute. by Yeremy Pino.
But Bryan Zaragoza (22 years old) not only wanted to show his ability to dribble, but also; But ask Koundé, who he deceived twice in Granada’s second goal. “I don’t know if I’ve seen him score a goal like that in training,” commented his teammate Gonzalo Villar, laughing. “I saw the second goal and I’m not surprised. I tried the gun and then I didn’t shoot because I saw two in front. Ter Stegen went for the cut and then it was easier,” said the winger, who was not willing to let Barcelona conquer the Granada field nor for the owner of all the records of the night to be Yamal, so he slept the Barça defense and scored the earliest goal that Barcelona has conceded in the League after 17 seconds. Karim Benzema’s mark in 2011 was in the rearview mirror, at 21 seconds. But his party was not complete: the post made it 3-2 when Barça was trying to make a comeback. He remained, however, with the MVP of the game.
“We had already analyzed Bryan. We knew that he is a bullet, that he relies a lot on transitions. He is a footballer who is not easy to stop in the race,” said Xavi. And he regretted Zaragoza’s first goal: “It is our mistake in construction. The motto was to play face to face. You conceded that goal the first time, it affected us. The team has felt good since his second goal. Good feeling in terms of game, but not in terms of result.” Barcelona captain Sergi Roberto added: “We were just counting on the victory. We found ourselves with a 2-0 and we knew that we had to be careful with losses because they were very fast up front.”
Xavi, however, appreciated his team’s work despite the tie. “I think we dominated the game practically in its entirety. We have had chances and we have deserved more, but due to our mistakes… we cannot go out on the field like that. We had talked about its danger. We had to row and, from there, the team has been patient, has dominated… and in the end we deserved the victory,” said the Barça coach. “But,” he concluded; “We took a point that is insufficient for us.”
You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes in Facebook and xor sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.