January 08, (THEWILL) –Â Granada earned a late point in Andalusia thanks to Antonio Puertas’ goal on Saturday night, as ten-man Barcelona dropped points due to a late equaliser.
Early on, Luuk de Jong appeared to have broken the deadlock by heading in Gavi’s cross, but the goal was disallowed after a VAR assessment due to an earlier offside.
In truth, there were few highlights in the first half, with Granada content to sit back, absorb pressure, and then break quickly on the counter.
In the second stanza, though, Barça recovered their stride and broke through when De Jong nodded in Dani Alves’ wonderful cross beyond Luis Maximiano.
While Granada was inefficient with their shooting and struggled to create clear-cut chances, a second yellow card for Gavi allowed the hosts to pour on the pressure with a man advantage in the closing ten minutes.
The pressure finally paid off in the 89th minute, when Puertas gathered the ball from a corner and banged it in, assisted by some tired Barça defenders.
The outcome means that Xavi’s team will lose out on a chance to move up to third place in La Liga, and will instead remain in sixth place, only a point behind the Champions League qualifying spots.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
