Barcelona 2-1 Mallorca: Memphis Depay and Sergio Busquets score

Barcelona ended their historic run of three straight defeats at home with a 2-1 win over Mallorca and they welcomed back Ansu Fati after three and a half months out injured.

It was top scorer Memphis Depay who got their first and when Sergio Busquets doubled the lead in the second half it seemed they were home and dry. Xavi clearly thought so and put on Fati for his first minutes since he was injured away at Athletic Bilbao in January.

But Mallorca had other ideas and battled back with a goal from Antonio Raillo. That made for a nervous finish for Barcelona but they held on to move second in the table.

Barça started brightly and Sergio Rico had to save well from Pierre Emerick Aubameyang’s header from Gavi's cross. Gerard Pique felt his groin as early as 12 minutes in. He clearly wasn’t 100 percent but Xavi seems to prefer him not fully fit to any of his fully-fit alternatives.

On 18 minutes Fer Nino blazed over from Brian Olivan’s cross as Mallorca showed they had not just come to defend. But on 22 minutes Barcelona had the ball in the back of the net when Jordi Alba crossed and Ronald Araujo headed past Rico. The offside flag had been correctly raised and the goal was ruled out.

When Barcelona finally broke the deadlock it was simple direct football. Pique played the ball out to Jordi Alba and he clipped a brilliant pass over the top to Memphis who had peeled away from Pablo Maffeo. The wing-back tried to recover but could not stop Memphis firing past Rico for 1-0.

Pique’s part in the goal was his last contribution as Eric Garcia replaced him.

Barcelona: Ter Stegen; Alves (Lenglet 89), Araujo, Pique (Garcia 28), Alba; F. De Jong, Busquets, Gavi; Torres (Dembele 75), Aubameyang (Fati 75), Depay

Subs: Neto, Tenas,