Barcelona held by lowly Eibar as injured Lionel Messi watches from the stands

Dembele, a half-time substitute, was the star of the present from a Barcelona perspective, establishing a string of probabilities for his team-mates and coming near including a late winner, however it was not sufficient as their irritating season suffered one other setback.

The show was unlikely to have impressed the watching Messi, simply again from an prolonged break in Argentina and never concerned on account of an ankle damage, as hypothesis over his subsequent transfer ramps up with the 33-year-old shifting into the ultimate months of his contract.

Barca had a penalty inside 5 minutes after Araujo drew a foul from Pedro Bigas however they might not take benefit as Martin Braithwaite wasted the chance, firing large of the left upright.

Eibar took encouragement from the let-off, having fun with a powerful spell as they created alternatives for Takashi Inui, Garcia and Edu in between a string of corners.

Barca didn’t reemerge as an attacking power till halfway via the half, with Araujo’s header forcing a good save from Marko Dmitrovic.

Braithwaite had the ball within the internet within the twenty fifth minute however his effort was dominated out for offside.

Ronald Koeman despatched on Dembele to switch defender Sergino Dest on the break and it seemed to be working as he had two probabilities both facet of making openings for Miralem Pjanic and Antoine Griezmann.

However simply as the sport appeared to be tilting Barca’s method, Garcia robbed Araujo of the ball on the midway line and ran at aim to fireside past Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

Koeman responded with two extra modifications as he despatched on Philippe Coutinho and Trincao, and 10 minutes later Barca had been stage. A neat transfer on the left freed Junior Firpo to ship over a low cross and Dembele had all of the house he might need to hearth again throughout the face of aim.

The sport was arrange for a Barcelona winner as Dembele continued to drag the strings, however Clement Lenglet headed over earlier than Braithwaite fired large they usually couldn’t take any of their late probabilities.