Las Palmas 1-1 Barcelona: Mateu Lahoz robs Catalans of two points
The referee didn't send Chichizola and then awarded a strange penalty
Messi opened the scoring before Calleri's equaliser from the spot
Barcelona’s lead at the top of La Liga is down to five points after they were held to a controversial 1-1 draw at Las Palmas on Thursday.
LPA
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FCB
LINE UP
UD LAS PALMAS
Chichizola; D. Castellano (c) (Macedo, 75'), Gálvez, Ximo Navarro, Aguirregaray, Vicente Gómez (Aquilani, 70'), Halilovic, Tana, Etebo, Jairo (David García, 86') y Calleri
FC BARCELONA
Ter Stegen; Sergi Roberto, Umtiti, Vermaelen, Digne; Busquets. Paulinho (Rakitic, 63'), Iniesta (c) (Dembélé, 75'). Aleix Vidal (Coutinho, 57'), Luis Suárez y Messi
Goles
0-1 min. 21 Messi. Falta directa de Leo Messi que hace inútil la estirada de Chichizola; 1-1 min. 48. Callery de penalty.Penalty por manos de Digne en un rechace del balón en el poste. Calleri lo transforma batiendo a Ter Stegen.
Árbitro
Mateu Lahoz (col. valenciano). Mostró tarjetas amarillas a Aguirregaray (5') por entrada a Iniesta; a D. Castellano (10') por agarrar a Messi; a Ximo Navarro (20') por falta a Messi; a Digne (24') por derribar a Aguirregaray; a Sergi Roberto (41') por pérdida de tiempo; a Umtiti (52') por derribar a Etebo; a Etebo (66') por derribar a Messi; a Gálvez (68') por derribar a Messi; a Calleri (90+4) por una falta a Umtit;
Incidencias
Estadio Gran Canaria.
Lionel Messi gave Barca a first half lead, scoring his second free kick in as many games, but Jonathan Calleri’s second half penalty earned a share of the spoils for the home side.
However, it was not clear why Mateu Lahoz gave the spot kick, the first Barca have given away since February 2016, a run of 78 games.
Some suggested it was for a handball by Lucas Digne, other said it was because of a foul by Sergi Roberto — the fact it’s not clear shows how debatable the decision was.
Ernesto Valverde made a number of changes for the game, although he decided to start Luis Suarez, who managed to avoid picking up the booking which would have ruled him out of Sunday’s game against Atletico.
There were starts for Thomas Vermaelen, Lucas Digne, Paulinho and Aleix Vidal.
However it was the familiar face of Messi who opened the scoring, firing home a brilliant free kick to take his tally to 23 league goals this season.
The first half ended in controversy when Lahoz either failed to spot or decided not to whistle when goalkeeper Leandro Chichizola handled outside his area to stop Suarez going clean through.
Lahoz then caused an even bigger furore when he gave Las Palmas a penalty, the reason of which remains unclear.
Former West Ham United striker Calleri beat Marc-Andre ter Stegen from the spot.
Valverde brought on Philippe Coutinho, Ivan Rakitic and Ousmane Dembele in search of the win, but none were able to help find the three points.
Dembele had Barca’s only shot on target of the second half, testing Chichizola deep in stoppage time from distance.
Barca are now just five points ahead of Atletico, who beat Leganes on Wednesday and were as many as 11 points back from the Catalans just one month ago.
The two teams meat at Camp Nou on Sunday in a match which could have huge implications in the title race.
