Celta stuns 10-man Barcelona with late goals
Celta Vigo scored two goals in two minutes late on to earn an absorbing 2-2 draw with Barcelona in LaLiga at Estadio Abanca-Balaidos.
League leader Barca, again without its superstar winger Lamine Yamal, appeared to be cruising towards victory when it opened up a two-goal lead thanks to captain Raphinha and leading goalscorer Robert Lewandowski.
Raphinha cut inside before tucking home for the opener 15 minutes in, then Lewandowski scored his 15th league goal of the season with a simple finish after a clumsy run in the 61st minute.
However, the script changed when Blaugrana midfielder Marc Casado was sent off after receiving his second yellow card in the 82nd minute.
In truth, Barcelona could have been down to 10 men in the first half when Gerard Martin was lucky to escape a second yellow card for a poor tackle on Iago Aspas.
The Celta captain was booked for his furious reaction to the referee's inaction, but in the end was smiling thanks to the never-say-die attitude of his team-mates.
With Barca down to 10 men, the hosts piled on the pressure and it told in the 84th minute, substitute Alfonso Gonzalez converting after an awful defensive error from Jules Kounde.
The comeback was complete two minutes later, with Hugo Alvarez duping the Barcelona defenders brilliantly before drilling past Inaki Pena to deny Flick's visitors a victory it arguably didn't deserve.
Despite the result, Barca still tops LaLiga with 34 points, five ahead of Atletico Madrid in second and seven ahead of third-placed Real Madrid, which has two games in hand.
Going into this game, Barcelona had gone 24 matches without a draw in LaLiga, winning 20 and losing four.
When it entered the final six minutes with a two-goal advantage, it appeared certain it would match its longest streak without a draw in the competition's history, recorded between February and October 2017 (25 games, 23 wins and two draws).
However, Flick's side was stunned at the death as it dropped points for a second game in succession after a 1-0 loss at Real Sociedad prior to the international break.
"It wasn't only the last few minutes, we played a really bad game tonight," Flick said.
"If you don't play at 100 per cent you can't win. That's just the way it was the whole game. We have to be honest.
"These things happen. It was a bad game. The players are not happy. Everyone can play better than what we did today. You have to stay focused. Sometimes it may seem that what we do is easy, but it is not."
Flick would not point fingers at Casado for the red card or defender Jules Kounde for a bad mistake that led to Celta's first goal. Instead, he criticised his side's collective effort and performance levels.
"The red card and Kounde's mistake are just a consequence of the bad game from the team. We made a lot of mistakes and lacked confidence on the ball throughout the match," Flick said.
"We didn't play the football we are used to but we were lucky with some situations and in the end got a point but we have to react because it cannot be repeated.
"I hope what we saw today doesn't have a negative impact in our [UEFA] Champions League game against Brest on Tuesday. We have to learn with the mistakes we move on."
