Xavi confident in 15-year-old Lamine Yamal’s potential after LaLiga debut

Barcelona coach Xavi has expressed his confidence in Lamine Yamal’s future success after the 15-year-old academy product made his LaLiga debut against Real Betis on Saturday.

Yamal came on as a late substitute during the game, which saw Barca win 4-0 and increase their lead at the top of the league by 11 points.

As the youngest player in Barca’s LaLiga history at just 15 years and 290 days old, Yamal almost assisted in a goal for Ousmane Dembele.

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Xavi praised Yamal’s talent and believes that he has the potential to make a significant impact in the future.

The Barca coach said: “I’ve told him to try things. At 15 years old, he is a talent and a special player.

“He has been able to score, he has assisted and when you see him in training you see that he can be very great.”

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Raphinha scored one goal and assisted another in the thrashing of Betis, with Andreas Christensen and Robert Lewandowski also on target and Guido Rodriguez scoring an own goal.

The Brazil winger echoed Xavi’s sentiment on Yamal, saying: “When I was 15 years old, I played for my neighbourhood team.

“It’s incredible. It would have been incredible to score a goal.”

Raphinha suggested Barca must repeat performances such as the one against Betis, which was in stark contrast to their showing in Wednesday’s surprise 2-1 defeat to Rayo Vallecano.

He added: “The Rayo game was very tough. We needed to respond with a victory.

“Xavi warned us, we knew we needed a better attitude and be better on the ball. If we want to win the league, we have to play like this.“