European football: Las Palmas leave Barça to spoil 125th anniversary | European club football

Barcelona suffered their first home defeat of the season as Las Palmas shocked the Spanish league leaders 2-1 at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys on Saturday.

Barcelona have played excellently in the first three months under new coach Hansi Flick. Barça came into Las Palmas’ visit flying high after convincing wins over Real Madrid in La Liga and Bayern Munich in the Champions League, winning all eight home games to start the campaign. But Flick’s side have now gone three La Liga rounds without a win. Before the loss to Las Palmas, Barça fell 1-0 at Real Sociedad and drew 2-2 at Celta Vigo.

The latest defeat saw Sandro Ramírez and Wolves loanee Fábio Silva score for the Canary Islands club either side of Raphina’s equaliser.

Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal returned as a half-time substitute from a right ankle injury that had sidelined him for three weeks, but Jasper Cillessen saved his best effort. The Las Palmas goalkeeper also did well to get Raphinha’s free-kick over the bar in the final minutes.

“I think when we don’t score the goals, the team struggles a bit and that’s what we have to change,” Flick said. “If we don’t score a goal, it might be possible for us to keep a clean sheet. So we have to defend better as a team, not just the back four or defensive players, but the whole team and we can do better.”

The defeat also spoiled Barcelona’s 125th anniversary and the introduction of the club’s new mascot, a large yellow cat named ‘Cat’. The name is a play on Barcelona’s position as the leading club in Catalonia, with the four red stripes on the Cat’s forehead referring to the Catalan flag.

Cat was first unveiled at an anniversary gala on Friday night and follows the tradition of the club using historical landmarks to introduce a new mascot, with the short-lived ‘Clam’ created for Barça’s 100th anniversary.

Barça’s arch-rivals Real Madrid, who have had their own problems, particularly in Europe, can now move ahead of Barcelona if the reigning La Liga champions win both games in hand.