Luuk de Jong put the Catalan club in front in the 57th minute before Gavi was sent off and Granda scored a late equalizer through Antonio Puertas to share the points.
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Barcelona head coach Xavi Hernandez was upset after his team conceded a late equalizer against Granada in a 1-1 draw in the La Liga fixture at Los Carmenes on Saturday. Luuk de Jong put the Catalan club in front in the 57th minute before Gavi was sent off and Granda scored a late equalizer through Antonio Puertas to share the points. Meanwhile Dani Alves who returned to Barcelona for a second spell, had a very good game at the right-back position and he provided the assist for Luuk de Jong’s goal.
After a goalless first half, Barcelona took the lead in the 57th minute. Alves delivered a brilliant cross from the right for Luuk to head home past Luis Maximiano and into the net. It was the Dutchman’s third goal of the season.
In the 79th minute, Gavi received a red card for a tackle from behind on Alex Collado. The visitors pushed men forward to take full advantage of a man-less Barcelona. Barcelona goalkeeper Marc Andre ter-Stegen made some brilliant saves to maintain the slender lead until Puertas equalized in the 89th minute.
“The result is unfortunate. It’s a shame, I know. I’m angry and upset. These are the kind of matches where you can tell that the lack of experience is affecting us. We saw this movie in Pamplona already. We have to defend with the ball, have more patience. It was a 0-2 game. We have to be self critical,” Xavi said.
After taking the lead, Barcelona didn’t keep the ball possession very well and were caught out of possession on multiple occasions. The team’s lack of experience when holding on to the lead was pretty much visible and Granada exploited the situation.
“We lose a lot of stupid balls. A lot of them. We have to criticize ourselves. We need to start growing right away. It’s time to move on and change the mental chip. We have the Clasico coming up which is extremely important,” The Spanish coach further added.
Touching on Gavi’s red card, he said: “Gavi’s red card shows his lack of experience. We have to move on.”
Meanwhile despite the draw Barcelona fans would be pleased to see the performance of Luuk and Alves. Luuk didn’t have a great start to his Barcelona career but, in the new year he has netted twice in as many games.
On the other hand, Alves, who made his debut on return against Linares in the Copa de Rey delivered yet another good performance at Granada, showing that even at 38-years of age he is dependable.
▪️ 1 assist.
▪️ 3 chances created.
▪️ 10 recoveries.He may now be @FCBarcelona‘s oldest player in #LaLigaHistory, but @DaniAlvesD2 looked as good as ever today on his #LaLigaSantander return! ?#GranadaBarça pic.twitter.com/ARmw9RDyEG
— LaLiga English (@LaLigaEN) January 9, 2022
Dani Alves’ appearance at Granada at 38 years and 247 days makes him the oldest player to play for Barcelona in LaLiga Santander.
He takes that particular landmark away from former goalkeeper Pinto, who featured for the Catalans at 38 years and 190 days.
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