Barcelona start LaLiga season with comfortable win at Mallorca

BARCELONA: Barcelona made a confident start to their LaLiga campaign on Saturday, easing to a 3–0 win over nine-man Mallorca as England forward Marcus Rashford made his debut off the bench.

Mallorca’s Manu Morlanes and Vedat Muriqi were sent off within six first-half minutes after Raphinha and Ferran Torres struck early for the Spanish champions.

“These are three very important points, but I didn’t like the match. The team dropped their intensity too much in the second half, that’s not acceptable. We need to talk about it,” Barcelona coach Hansi Flick said.

Raphinha headed home after seven minutes and Torres doubled the lead in the 23rd minute to put the Spanish champions in command.

Mallorca players complained to the referee, saying they had stopped playing when a teammate went down in the lead-up to Torres’s goal, but the referee was unmoved.

“I always tell my players not to stop until the referee blows the final whistle. It’s the referee who has to decide,” Flick said.

Morlanes was shown a second yellow card for a foul on Lamine Yamal after 33 minutes and Muriqi received a straight red after his high challenge caught Joan Garcia.

Rashford, on loan from Manchester United, was sent on in the 69th minute for his debut, becoming the first Englishman to play a first-team game for Barcelona since former England striker Gary Lineker in 1989.

Yamal found the top corner with an excellent shot four minutes into stoppage time to complete the visitors’ comfortable win.

Barcelona travel to Levante next Saturday, when Mallorca host Celta Vigo.