On paper, while Lamine Yamal officially left the field in the 80th minute against FC Porto, the young Barcelona forward had already left some 10 minutes earlier.
This means the Blaugrana actually played these 10 minutes – between 71’ and 80’ – with only 10 men.
That’s right! On his debut as a starter in the UEFA Champions League, the 16-year-old, who recently renewed his contract, had an incident he would remember for the rest of his life.
What happened with Yamal?
According to Mundo Deportivo, in the 71st minute, Yamal left the field abruptly, heading to the locker room due to an unexpected illness.
However, he never reemerged onto the playing field. Consequently, Barça found themselves a player down for over 10 minutes, a situation not caused by injury or expulsion.
It wasn’t until the 80th minute that Marcos Alonso was called into action as a substitute for Yamal and Barcelona had all 11 players available on the field.
But for what it is worth, between these 10 minutes, the game had stopped for some minutes when the referee blew the whistle, citing a handball by Joao Cancelo as the reason for the penalty.
However, after reviewing the play on the VAR monitor, the referee reversed his decision. Meanwhile, even during this time, Yamal had yet to rejoin the action on the field, having taken a brief break to use the restroom.
What did Xavi say?
Speaking about the incident, Barcelona manager Xavi shed light on the subject, revealing that his young forward has been struggling with an illness. The player had already informed the manager about it and while he did try to return, it just wasn’t meant to be.
“Lamine Yamal has an illness, he had been telling me for a while. I took advantage of a break to tell him to be quick and go to the toilet, but in the end, he told me that he wouldn’t be able to get back to the pitch,” said Xavi when asked about the incident.
Be that as it may, the Blaugrana anyway had to finish the game with 10 men. During the third minute of the additional time, Gavi received his second caution for a silly challenge, meaning that Barcelona were reduced by one player.
But for what it is worth, the team managed to hold on to the lead, walking out 1-0 victorious.
