Barcelona beat Las Palmas 1-0 in the Spanish league on Saturday thanks to a goal scored by Raphinha after Las Palmas was already down to 10 players.

In the 24th minute, Las Palmas goalkeeper Álvaro Vallés ran out of his area and crashed into the Brazil winger, who was already far behind the defense. Vallés got a straight red card.

In the 59th minute, replacement João Félix sent a perfectly floated pass for Raphinha to head in. This let Las Palmas break through.

“These three things are very important. Raphinha said about the chances of passing Real Madrid, “We will keep fighting until the end and won’t give up until the league is over.”

Second place Real Madrid is still in first place, but Barcelona is now only five points behind. On Sunday, Barcelona will host Athletic Bilbao. The two best teams in Spain will play each other in the capital three weeks after the semifinals of the Champions League. Barcelona will play Paris Saint-Germain and Madrid will play Manchester City.

Jules Koundé set up Félix all by himself at the far post, and he had a great chance to make it 2-0. But Félix’s shot went over the goal.

Even though the Canary Islands team was down a player, Alberto Moleiro almost tied the game in the last few minutes when he hit the side netting.

Coach Xavi Hernández said, “We did our work today and got the three points we needed to stay in the fight.” He observed the game from the stands as he serves a two-game ban for protesting.

After a string of painful losses, Xavi said he wouldn’t be back next season. Since then, Barcelona has gotten better, especially on defense, and hasn’t lost in 11 straight games in all categories.

Xavi told them that he hoped the move would make his team do something. After the game on Saturday, Raphinha said that the players “talked about things internally and what we needed to do to get wins” which led to the improvement.

Xavi and his team have eleven days to get ready for PSG.

The league will take a break next weekend for the Copa del Rey final. Barcelona won’t play again until April 10, when they play the first game of their match against PSG.

Barcelona’s Ferran Torres came on as a replacement in the second half and played for the first time since late January, when he hurt his right thigh.

BUDIMIR GETS JUDE

Ante Budimir scored his 16th league goal of the season, tying him with Jude Bellingham of Real Madrid as the top scorer in the tournament. Budimir helped get a 3-0 win over Almeria, who are in last place.

After Almeria’s goalie Luis Maximiano made a mistake, the Croatian player made it 2-0 for Osasuna. The goalie slid to stop the ball from passing the goal line to try to stop the corner kick from being given, but instead he passed it to an Osasuna player, who easily set up Budimir to score into an open net.

Budimir is having the best season of his career. In his last seven games, he has scored six goals. The next best season for him was the 2019–20 season with Mallorca, when he scored 13 goals.

Bellingham comes back from a two-game ban on Sunday.

A RACIST ATTACK

Fans yelled racist things at Sevilla’s defender Marcos Acuña and boss Quique Sánchez Flores during their 1-0 win at Getafe.

The game was quickly stopped by referee Javier Iglesias when fans insulted Acuña in the 68th minute. Sanchez Flores, who has managed Getafe three times, said after the game that his Roma background was made fun of.

Sánchez Flores said, “We are workers who come here to work in peace and be respected.” “It is an aberration that in these times when we are advancing in so many ways that (these individuals) grab us and pull us backwards.”

The game was won by Sergio Ramos in the fifth minute.

Malta gets ready for the final

Two weeks before the Copa del Rey final, Mallorca and Valencia played to a 0-0 draw.

This defense-heavy team led by Javier Aguirre has kept three shutouts in its last four games.