Lamine Yamal scored the only goal as FC Barcelona beat Celta de Vigo 1-0 on Wednesday — but the moment of celebration turned into concern when he appeared to pull a muscle while converting the penalty at 40 minutes, collapsed to the ground and later hobbled off the pitch before being replaced by Roony Bardghji.
The narrow win kept Barcelona's lead over Real Madrid at nine points, with six league games remaining, but the match was marked by injuries: João Cancelo had already been forced out earlier in the first half with a thigh problem, and Ferran Torres had a second-half goal ruled out by VAR. Hansi Flick described the result as hard-earned: "We’re happy. We had to suffer a lot today. Celta plays very well. The first half was very difficult, different from what we expected. In the end, the important thing is that we got the three points" and added, "We usually control the game. They pressed us high up the pitch with a lot of intensity. It’s not easy to create play and chances. We lost possession a few easy times and it wasn’t good for us."
Barcelona’s medical services said the lamine yamal injury is a hamstring injury in his left leg. The club has not defined how long Yamal could be out, MARCA reported, and further tests were needed with a clear diagnosis still outstanding. Flick summed up the immediate medical uncertainty: "We’ll have to see what happens tomorrow with Lamine. With a clear diagnosis. It’s not easy, we have to accept it. Just like Joao. Let’s hope they aren’t serious injuries".
The weight of those lines is concrete: a penalty at 40 minutes decided a 1-0 game that preserved a nine-point cushion in the title race, but it also ended with one of Barcelona’s young attacking options leaving in obvious discomfort and the squad already lightened by Cancelo’s earlier exit. Roony Bardghji came on to replace Yamal, and Barcelona held on despite a disallowed Torres strike, but the on-field result now sits beside an immediate selection problem for Flick.
Context matters here. Barcelona go into the remaining six league fixtures with a lead that, on paper, looks comfortable, and with the chance to secure what figures in the club’s calculations as a 29th Liga title. Yet that margin exists alongside two recent injuries in a single match and an unresolved diagnosis for Yamal’s left hamstring, leaving the club to await test results that could alter plans for the run-in.
The tension is straightforward and unavoidable: Barcelona won and gained three points, but they did so at the cost of possibly losing a young forward who had just scored, and with Cancelo also sidelined. The club’s medical statement names a hamstring problem; MARCA says the club has not defined an absence period. Those facts sit uneasily beside Flick’s insistence that the squad must "accept" the situation and his hope that both injuries are not serious.
The single most consequential unanswered question now is how long Yamal will be sidelined and whether Barcelona can close out the season without him. With six league matches left and a nine-point lead intact, the hamstring diagnosis — and the recovery timeline it produces — will be decisive for how Flick sets his team for the final stretch toward the title.
