Youngster Fermin Lopez Rescues Barcelona Draw At Mallorca

Youngster Fermin Lopez rescued Barcelona a 2-2 draw at Real Mallorca on Tuesday which extended his team's La Liga lead, even though the champions dropped two points. Barcelona came from behind twice to secure a draw, Vedat Muriqi opening the scoring for the hosts early on, before Raphinha pulled them level. However Abdon Prats sent Mallorca ahead again and 20-year-old Lopez levelled with a firm drive on his second appearance for the club. Girona and Real Madrid, second and third, face Villarreal and Las Palmas respectively on Wednesday.

"These careless mistakes cannot happen again," Xavi told DAZN.

"We have to improve. Last year we were so solid and concentrated a lot in defence.

"Today we were not bad but these are two mistakes which should not be happening -- because of these errors we lost two points today."

With Sevilla visiting on Friday in La Liga and next Tuesday's Champions League clash at Porto on the horizon, Xavi decided to shuffle his pack.

The coach benched Robert Lewandowski for the first time, with Ferran Torres playing up front, and gave defender Inigo Martinez his first start alongside fit-again Ronald Araujo.

Pedri and Frenkie de Jong's injury absences left the coach with little chance of rotating in midfield.

Javier Aguirre's Mallorca have not started the season well but knew just how to dig in and frustrate the hosts at Son Moix, with Rafa Benitez's Celta Vigo giving them the blueprint last weekend, despite Barca's late comeback win.

The hosts went ahead after eight minutes through target man Muriqi, who finished from Antonio Sanchez's cut-back, after Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen gave the ball away in his own box with a poor pass.

Joao Felix and Torres narrowly failed to reach dangerous