FC Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal continues to make history in his young career. However, this contest against AS Monaco will be one that his teammates will want to forget.
In the 16th minute, Vanderson linked up with Maghnes Akliouche to score the opening goal. Adi Hütter’s team had the momentum, but it wasn’t long before Barcelona’s rising star, Lamine Yamal, made his presence felt.
Despite the loss, Yamal made UEFA Champions League history. Squawka spotlighted on X that the Barcelona star has now made more Champions League appearances as a 17-year-old or younger than anyone else in the competition’s history.
A New Record for the Young Star
Yamal surpassed Jude Bellingham, Youri Tielemans, and Warren Zaïre-Emery, who all had 10.
In starting vs Monaco today, Lamine Yamal has made more Champions League appearances aged 17 or under than any other player in the history of the competition, overtaking Jude Bellingham, Youri Tielemans and Warren Zaïre-Emery (all on 10).
And he's marked the occasion with a… pic.twitter.com/pgzPhVwP6c
— Squawka (@Squawka) September 19, 2024
However, it wasn’t enough, as Monaco found the back of the net in the second half thanks to a goal from George Ilenikhena to seal a 2-1 win.
Lamine Yamal's First Champions League Goal
Lamine Yamal scored his first ever Champions League goal at the perfect time for Barcelona.
The Catalans went down to ten men in their opening Champions League fixture against Monaco after Eric García was sent off in the 10th minute. The midfielder received a straight red card after denying Takumi Minamino a clear goalscoring opportunity at the edge of the box.
The hosts then found the game's opening goal to go up 1–0 in front of a packed Stade Louis II. Barcelona looked well out of the game until Yamal delivered a moment of individual class to find the equalizer for his side.
The winger stayed just onside to receive a ball over the top, bumping Vanderson to give himself enough space to streak forward. Yamal dribbled along the edge of the box before sending a left-footed strike past Philipp Köhn into the back of the net.
17-year-old Lamine Yamal opens his Champions League account 🌟 pic.twitter.com/FdAAxH7Avz
The goal marks Yamal's fourth in six matches. Last weekend against Girona, the 17-year-old became the youngest player in La Liga history to record a first-half brace. He also already has four assists in Barcelona's 2024–25 Spanish campaign.
The teenager did not become the youngest ever goalscorer in the Champions League, though. Barcelona's Ansu Fati still holds the record when he scored the winner for Barcelona against Inter Milan in the 2019–20 Champions League. Fati was 17 years old and 40 days while Yamal is 17 years old and 68 days.
Barcelona went into the locker room level with Monaco thanks to Yamal's heroics.
A Promise of Greatness
Kicking off the La Liga season with a perfect five wins from their first five matches, Barcelona have been rolling, but they haven't had to face much adversity under new manager Hansi Flick so far. While scoring 17 goals and allowing four is quite an impressive feat, how Barcelona are able to respond when things aren't in their favor is just as important. In the Champions League against Monaco, we're getting a taste of that even with Barcelona losing 2-1 in an away trip to France.
Playing in midfield, Eric Garcia was sent off with a straight red card only 10 minutes into the match for denial of a goalscoring opportunity against Takumi Minamino. Six minutes later, Monaco found their opening goal and it seemed like the match would get out of hand for the Spanish giants. But that's where a moment of magic can turn things on its head.
It, of course, came from none other than 17-year-old Lamine Yamal. After breaking out for Barcelona last season and becoming a crucial part of the Span national team en route to them winning the European Championship, he's still finding another level to his game. Yamal checked his run perfectly to stay onside before delivering quite a strike to beat Phillipp Kohn in net.
Take a look at the goal:
17-year-old Lamine Yamal opens his Champions League account 🌟 pic.twitter.com/FdAAxH7Avz
With that finish, Yamal became the second youngest player to ever score for Barcelona in the Champions League behind Ansu Fati. It's a goal that provides Barcelona hope which is also what his presence has done for the team. While you never want to put pressure on someone so young, he's growing by the day and showing that he can be one of the players who can carry Barcelona.
“Lamine, he's a fantastic player, the goal he scored was great to give us confidence back but also, we have to protect this player, these kind of players,” Flick said following the match. “In La Liga, in the Champions League because it's very important but at his age and with his quality it's good to have him.”
Monaco took advantage of a poor pass by Barcelona to score the go-ahead goal in the match but Barcelona looked dangerous on the counterattack. Yamal and Raphinha did a lot in transition to make things work but for Flick, he needs to show that this result is a blip instead of the start of a trend.
Going down to 10 men 10 minutes in, there's only so much that a team can do and Flick did address that following the match but Barcelona's depth concerns showed. Without Dani Olmo, Garcia had to slide into midfield and all of Barcelona's subs during the match were under 25 years of age.
Managing a squad with players so young in key roles puts a lot of pressure on Flick's management and also goes back to his point about protection. He can't just set these guys out and let them run themselves into the ground especially playing multiple high-level games in the same week.
The Future is Now
Next up is a match against Villarreal during the weekend where Barcelona can look to keep their unbeaten run going in La Liga. Do that and it'll be easy to put this behind them. There are seven matches remaining in the league stage of the Champions League and plenty of teams didn't pick up maximum points on Matchday 1. With seven more matches, it's all about how Barcelona take lessons from this to do better in matchday two.
