Lamine Yamal's magic was not enough for Barcelona as the Spanish side twice surrendered a lead to draw 2-2 with Atalanta in the Champions League on Wednesday. The 17-year-old winger quickly emerged as the Catalan side's most dangerous player and opened the scoring, but the visitors were able to stay in the game and deprive Hansi Flick's men of finishing top of the league phase of the competition.
Amid Barca's slow start and some promising moments from the Italians, it was Gian Piero Gasperini's team who first put the ball in the net in the 36th minute, capitalising on some awful Barcelona defending as the ball fell to an unmarked Davide Zappacosta to fire home, but a VAR review revealed he was offside.
Within 90 seconds of the restart, Barca hit their guests on the counterattack. As the ball came out to Raphinha, he sent it into Yamal's path and he took it around the goalkeeper and followed it in.
It was Yamal who kickstarted Barca's next dangerous attack as he picked out Robert Lewandowski with a pass. The Polish striker looked destined to score as he charged towards goal but he stumbled and fell as the ball missed the target. Moments later, Yamal weaved his way into a great position to score but his shot was saved.
Despite the promising moves, Barcelona still looked vulnerable and Atalanta finally exposed that in the 67th minute when Ederson received the ball outside the box, skipped past Pedri and fired in a beautiful goal.
Barca were back in the lead within five minutes, though, when a Raphinha corner found Ronald Araujo on his own at the back post and the defender headed in, but Atalanta refused to give up and pulled level through Mario Pasalic, who held off Jules Kounde and Araujo's challenges to knock through Wojciech Szczesny from close range.
The Catalan side pushed for a winner and came close in the dying stages, but were forced to settle for a point.
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