BARCELONA: La Liga leaders Barcelona stumbled 1-0 at home against Leganes on Sunday as they suffered another blow in the Spanish title race.
Sergio Gonzalez headed home from a corner after four minutes for the visiting minnows and the Catalans missed a host of presentable chances as they failed to mount a comeback.
After a superb start to the season, Barcelona have lost three of their last six league games and won just one of those, with their lead whittled away.
Hansi Flick’s side are level on points with Atletico Madrid, second, and lead third-place Real Madrid by a single point, having played one extra game than both their title rivals.
Barcelona started in the worst possible way as their former youth player Munir El Haddadi broke in down the right and forced a fine save from Inaki Pena at his near post.
From the resulting corner Leganes took the lead, with Sergio Gonzalez powering a header home to stun the Olympic stadium into silence.
From there Barcelona dominated against the visitors, 15th, and created several chances but found an inspired Marko Dmitrovic in their way.
The Serbian goalkeeper twice denied La Liga’s top goalscorer Robert Lewandowski, who also headed over the bar from Jules Kounde’s cross.
Dmitrovic produced a superb save to thwart Brazilian winger Raphinha, tipping his powerful effort against the crossbar.
Barcelona’s teenage wing wizard Lamine Yamal hurt his ankle in a challenge in the first half but despite the pain affecting him, continued to play and was his team’s most potent threat as usual.
The 17-year-old lashed narrowly over after gliding past Javi Hernandez as Barcelona turned the screw.
Despite his ankle issue and Ferran Torres warming up, Yamal emerged for the second half.
Kounde screwed a shot narrowly wide after Dani Olmo nudged the ball through for him.
Neither Lewandowski nor Olmo were on song and Flick replaced the pair with Torres and Fermin Lopez for the final 25 minutes.
Leganes held firm with Barcelona only able to create half-chances, until Raphinha and Torres combined to tee up Kounde, but he pulled his shot across the face of goal and wide.
In stoppage time, Barcelona won a free-kick on the edge of Leganes’ area but Raphinha whipped it over the crossbar to end a thoroughly frustrating night.
Barcelona host Atletico in their final match of the year next weekend.

PARIS: Paris Saint-Germain outclassed in-form Lyon on Sunday, winning 3-1 to extend their lead at the top of the Ligue 1 table to seven points.
Ousmane Dembele opened the scoring at the Parc des Princes and Vitinha added a penalty as PSG raced into a two-goal lead in what was expected to be one of the biggest tests of their credentials domestically this season.
Georges Mikautadze pulled one back for Lyon before the break but they never really looked like equalising and substitute Goncalo Ramos wrapped up the points for PSG late on.
The win for Paris comes after nearest challengers Marseille and Monaco were both held to draws on Saturday, putting them in an even stronger position to go on and retain their title.
PSG now head to Monaco on Wednesday in a rearranged fixture which will give them the chance to finish 2024 with a 10-point advantage over their nearest rivals.
Earlier in France, Champions League surprise package Brest followed their latest famous European win in midweek by hammering Nantes 4-1.
First-half goals by Kamory Doumbia and captain Brendan Chardonnet set Brest on their way in Brittany, and Abdallah Sima added a late brace after Douglas Augusto had pulled a goal back for Nantes.
It was a much-needed victory for Brest, who had lost four of their previous five games in Ligue 1 but are up into mid-table, six points clear of the bottom three.
The Pirates qualified for the Champions League for the first time in their history by finishing third in Ligue 1 last season.
A 1-0 home win over PSV Eindhoven in midweek was, remarkably, their fourth victory in six outings in Europe’s elite club competition — they are currently on course to qualify directly for the last 16.
Eric Roy’s team were back in their Stade Francis-Le Ble home for Sunday’s game, with the club forced to host Champions League matches over an hour away in Guingamp because their own stadium does not meet UEFA requirements.
Bottom club Montpellier came from behind twice to draw 2-2 with Nice, while Le Havre — also in the relegation zone — lost 3-0 at home to Strasbourg.
Jorge Sampaoli’s struggling Rennes defeated Angers 2-0.