BARCELONA: Dani Olmo and Ferran Torres came off the bench to rescue a 2-0 win for Barcelona at Las Palmas on Saturday that sent them back to the top of the La Liga table after a game that is unlikely to live long in the memory.

Barcelona now lead on 54 points, one ahead of Atletico Madrid — who temporarily took the pole position earlier after defeating Valencia 3-0.

Both sides were largely toothless in attack in a slow-paced match and struggled to produce good goal-scoring opportunities, before Barca finally broke the deadlock in the 62nd minute with a shot from inside the box by Olmo.

Torres added the second goal at the death, taking advantage of a mistake by the home side’s defence to fire a strike from close range five minutes into added time.

“There is no pressure, we are still in the driver’s seat and it’s up to us to keep it that way,” Olmo told Spanish TV Movistar Plus.

“I’m very happy to help our team take three points that were very important in the title race against a Las Palmas side that defend very well.

“They block passing lanes inside and we have to be a bit more patient to find our way to the goal. In the second half we had more chances and in the end we took this valuable win.”

Earlier, Julian Alvarez bagged a brace as Atletico were able to climb to the top of the pile for a couple of hours.

The Argentina international reached nine league goals for the season with his first half double before Angel Correa steered home the third late on.

Elsewhere, Villarreal, fifth, kept the pressure on the top four with a hard-fou­ght 1-0 win at Rayo Vall­ecano, sixth.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2025