MADRID (AP) — Lamine Yamal has renewed his promise to win the Champions League with Barcelona.
A day after the team's elimination by Atletico Madrid in the quarterfinals, the 18-year-old Yamal said he will not give up and will fulfil his vow of capturing the trophy with the Catalan club.
“We are Barça, and we will be back where we belong,” the teenager said on a post on Instagram. “My parents taught me that a man’s word always has to be fulfilled...we’ll bring it to Barcelona.”
Barcelona defeated Atletico 2-1 on Tuesday but it had lost the first leg 2-0 at home last week. The Catalan club was trying to return to the semifinals for the second season in row. It won the last of its five Champions League trophies in 2015, with Lionel Messi at the top of his game.
“We gave it our all but it wasn’t good enough," Yamal said. "This is just part of the road. To get to the top you have to climb, and we know it won’t be easy, nor will they make it easy for us. But giving up is not an option.
“We have plenty of reasons to be excited about, and we’re going after it with everything. Every mistake is a lesson, and don’t doubt that we will learn from each one of them.”
Yamal, who scored one of Barcelona’s goals on Tuesday, had similar words after the team's loss to Inter Milan in the 2025 semifinals, saying he “won’t stop” until he can “fulfil my promise” to win the Champions League with the club.
Yamal, early Wednesday, was still using on his Instagram profile the photo of LeBron James holding the NBA trophy in 2016, when the Cleveland Cavaliers overcame a 3-1 deficit against the Golden State Warriors.
He had said before the game against Atletico that James was an inspiration for Barcelona's comeback attempt. His team needed another goal on Tuesday to take the game to extra time.
Yamal's Barcelona has a nine-point lead over second-place Real Madrid after 31 rounds in the Spanish league, and its next match is against Celta Vigo next week.
Barcelona loudly complained of the refereeing in both legs against Atletico, with forward Raphinha likely facing punishment after saying Tuesday that his team was "robbed."
President-elect Joan Laporta said Wednesday that the refereeing was “shameful” and “inadmissible,” and said the club planned to present a formal complaint with UEFA.
“The refereeing, both on the field and in the VAR booth, was a disgrace,” he told Spanish media. "What they did to us is intolerable. In the first leg, they didn’t award us a clear penalty and sent off one of our players for a yellow card offense. The refereeing decisions hurt us a lot.”
Barcelona had already made a complaint to UEFA about a possible penalty in its favor in the first leg.
It had Pau Cubarsí sent off in the first half of the opening game, and Eric García was shown a red card in the second half on Tuesday.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
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