Barcelona hit by absence of injured Yamal, loses to Sociedad in Spanish league

MADRID (AP) — Missing injured Lamine Yamal, Barcelona saw its seven-game winning run come to an end with a 1-0 loss at Real Sociedad in the Spanish league on Sunday.

Yamal, one of the team's key players this season under new coach Hansi Flick, was ruled out before the game because of a right ankle injury.

He was replaced by Fermín López and the team's attack — by far the best in the league with 40 goals scored in 13 matches — struggled in the Basque Country, unable to get a single attempt on target against Sociedad.

Sheraldo Becker scored a 33rd-minute winner to move Sociedad, which had lost two of its last three games in all competitions, to eighth place.

Barcelona has a six-point lead over second-place Real Madrid, which routed Osasuna 4-0 at home on Saturday with a hat trick from Vinícius Júnior. Madrid has a game in hand after its visit to Valencia was postponed because of the deadly floods in the Valencia region.

“We have to analyze what happened and keep working after the international break,” Barcelona midfielder Pedri said. “We have been playing well and we are still in first place.”

Barcelona had won seven in a row in all competitions since a 4-2 loss at Osasuna in the league in September. Its only other loss this season had been at Monaco in the Champions League. All of its other 14 matches were victories.

Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski, the league's leading scorer with 14 goals, had a first-half goal disallowed for offside.

Barcelona said Yamal sustained a “severe right ankle contusion” in last Wednesday’s game against Red Star in the Champions League.

“Over the past few days, he has undergone treatment, but the discomfort has yet to subside. His recovery will determine his availability,” the club said.

Flick said the club tested Yamal on Sunday to see if he could play “but it was not possible.”

Julián Álvarez scored a second-half winner as Atletico Madrid moved back into third place with a 1-0 victory at Mallorca.

That left Atletico one point behind Madrid. It moved two points ahead of Villarreal, which defeated visiting Alaves 3-0 on Saturday.

Álvarez scored Atletico's winner in the 61st minute after Giuliano Simeone's assist. Simeone, the son of Atletico coach Diego Simeone, beat a defender to a long pass and set Álvarez for an easy strike from close range.

Goalkeeper Jan Oblak had another solid performance for Atletico, which earned its seventh clean sheet in the league this season, the most by any club.

Atletico was coming off a 2-1 midweek win at Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League.

Marc Bartra scored a stoppage-time equalizer as seventh-place Real Betis salvaged a 2-2 home draw against 11th-place Celta Vigo.

Celta had moved ahead with Anastasios Douvikas' goal in the 82nd.

The visitors earlier took the lead through Javi Rodríguez in the 13th before Vitor Roque equalized for Betis in the 40th.

Midtable Girona won 1-0 at 17th-place Getafe with a first-half goal by Yangel Herrera, while sixth-place Athletic Bilbao was held at second-to-last-place Valladolid, with the Basque Country club earning the equalizer with Gorka Guruzeta in stoppage time after the hosts had taken the lead with Raúl Moro in the 79th.

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Real Sociedad's team players celebrate after Sheraldo Becker scored the opening goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Sociedad and Barcelona at the Anoeta stadium, in San Sebastian, Spain, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Miguel Oses)

Real Sociedad's team players celebrate after Sheraldo Becker, left, scored the opening goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Sociedad and Barcelona at the Anoeta stadium, in San Sebastian, Spain, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Miguel Oses)

Teams stand for a moment of silence in memory of the flood victims in Valencia, before the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Sociedad and Barcelona at the Anoeta stadium, in San Sebastian, Spain, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Miguel Oses)

Barcelona's Pau Cubarsi, top, heads the ball during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Sociedad and Barcelona at the Anoeta stadium, in San Sebastian, Spain, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Miguel Oses)

Real Sociedad's Ander Barrenetxea, left, comforts Barcelona's Ansu Fati after the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Sociedad and Barcelona at the Anoeta stadium, in San Sebastian, Spain, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Miguel Oses)

Barcelona's head coach Hansi Flick gestures during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Sociedad and Barcelona at the Anoeta stadium, in San Sebastian, Spain, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Miguel Oses)

Barcelona's Dani Olmo reacts during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Sociedad and Barcelona at the Anoeta stadium, in San Sebastian, Spain, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Miguel Oses)

Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski reacts after the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Sociedad and Barcelona at the Anoeta stadium, in San Sebastian, Spain, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Miguel Oses)

PRAYAGRAJ, India (AP) — Millions of Hindu devotees, mystics and holy men and women from all across India flocked to the northern city of Prayagraj on Monday to kickstart the Maha Kumbh festival, which is being touted as the world's largest religious gathering.

Over about the next six weeks, Hindu pilgrims will gather at the confluence of three sacred rivers — the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati — where they will take part in elaborate rituals, hoping to begin a journey to achieve Hindu philosophy’s ultimate goal: the release from the cycle of rebirth.

Here’s what to know about the festival:

Hindus venerate rivers, and none more so than the Ganges and the Yamuna. The faithful believe that a dip in their waters will cleanse them of their past sins and end their process of reincarnation, particularly on auspicious days. The most propitious of these days occur in cycles of 12 years during a festival called the Maha Kumbh Mela, or pitcher festival.

The festival is a series of ritual baths by Hindu sadhus, or holy men, and other pilgrims at the confluence of three sacred rivers that dates to at least medieval times. Hindus believe that the mythical Saraswati river once flowed from the Himalayas through Prayagraj, meeting there with the Ganges and the Yamuna.

Bathing takes place every day, but on the most auspicious dates, naked, ash-smeared monks charge toward the holy rivers at dawn. Many pilgrims stay for the entire festival, observing austerity, giving alms and bathing at sunrise every day.

“We feel peaceful here and attain salvation from the cycles of life and death,” said Bhagwat Prasad Tiwari, a pilgrim.

The festival has its roots in a Hindu tradition that says the god Vishnu wrested a golden pitcher containing the nectar of immortality from demons. Hindus believe that a few drops fell in the cities of Prayagraj, Nasik, Ujjain and Haridwar — the four places where the Kumbh festival has been held for centuries.

The Kumbh rotates among these four pilgrimage sites about every three years on a date prescribed by astrology. This year’s festival is the biggest and grandest of them all. A smaller version of the festival, called Ardh Kumbh, or Half Kumbh, was organized in 2019, when 240 million visitors were recorded, with about 50 million taking a ritual bath on the busiest day.

At least 400 million people — more than the population of the United States — are expected in Prayagraj over the next 45 days, according to officials. That is around 200 times the 2 million pilgrims that arrived in the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia for the annual Hajj pilgrimage last year.

The festival is a big test for Indian authorities to showcase the Hindu religion, tourism and crowd management.

A vast ground along the banks of the rivers has been converted into a sprawling tent city equipped with more 3,000 kitchens and 150,000 restrooms. Divided into 25 sections and spreading over 40 square kilometers (15 square miles), the tent city also has housing, roads, electricity and water, communication towers and 11 hospitals. Murals depicting stories from Hindu scriptures are painted on the city walls.

Indian Railways has also introduced more than 90 special trains that will make nearly 3,300 trips during the festival to transport devotees, beside regular trains.

About 50,000 security personnel — a 50% increase from 2019 — are also stationed in the city to maintain law and order and crowd management. More than 2,500 cameras, some powered by AI, will send crowd movement and density information to four central control rooms, where officials can quickly deploy personnel to avoid stampedes.

India’s past leaders have capitalized on the festival to strengthen their relationship with the country’s Hindus, who make up nearly 80% of India’s more than 1.4 billion people. But under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the festival has become an integral part of its advocacy of Hindu nationalism. For Modi and his party, Indian civilization is inseparable from Hinduism, although critics say the party's philosophy is rooted in Hindu supremacy.

The Uttar Pradesh state, headed by Adityanath — a powerful Hindu monk and a popular hard-line Hindu politician in Modi’s party — has allocated more than $765 million for this year’s event. It has also used the festival to boost his and the prime minister’s image, with giant billboards and posters all over the city showing them both, alongside slogans touting their government welfare policies.

The festival is expected to boost the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party’s past record of promoting Hindu cultural symbols for its support base. But recent Kumbh gatherings have also been caught in controversies.

Modi's government changed the city’s Mughal-era name from Allahabad to Prayagraj as part of its Muslim-to-Hindu name-changing effort nationwide ahead of the 2019 festival and the national election that his party won. In 2021, his government refused to call off the festival in Haridwar despite a surge in coronavirus cases, fearing a backlash from religious leaders in the Hindu-majority country.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Hindu devotees bathe at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers on the first day of the 45-day-long Maha Kumbh festival in Prayagraj, India, Monday, Jan. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

Devotees arrive for taking a dip at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers on the first day of the 45-day-long Maha Kumbh festival in Prayagraj, India, Monday, Jan. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

A Hindu devotee prays before taking a dip at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers on the first day of the 45-day-long Maha Kumbh festival in Prayagraj, India, Monday, Jan. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

Devotees arrive for taking a dip at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers on the first day of the 45-day-long Maha Kumbh festival in Prayagraj, India, Monday, Jan. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

Hindu devotees pray before taking a dip at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers on the first day of the 45-day-long Maha Kumbh festival in Prayagraj, India, Monday, Jan. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

A Hindu holy man sips tea at his makeshift living quarters at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers, a day before the official beginning of the 45-day-long Maha Kumbh festival, in Prayagraj, India, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

Pilgrims take shelter from the rain under a peepal tree by the side of a road, a day before the Maha Kumbh festival, in Prayagraj, India, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

Hindu holy men ride camels during a procession, a day before the 45-day-long Maha Kumbh festival, in Prayagraj, India, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

An ascetic dances with another as Hindu holy man walk in a procession, a day before the 45-day-long Maha Kumbh festival, in Prayagraj, India, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

A woman sells empty plastic containers as devotees arrive to bathe at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers, a day before the official beginning of the 45-day-long Maha Kumbh festival, in Prayagraj, India, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

Hindu devotees wearing the ceremonial costume of the Kathiawar region in Gujarat state, sing hymns at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers, a day before the official beginning of the 45-day-long Maha Kumbh festival, in Prayagraj, India, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

Hindu women wait to join their family members after bathing at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers, a day before the official beginning of the 45-day-long Maha Kumbh festival, in Prayagraj, India, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

A family enters the water to take a dip at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers, a day before the official beginning of the 45-day-long Maha Kumbh festival, in Prayagraj, India, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

Hindu devotees wearing the ceremonial costume of the Kathiawar region in Gujarat state, sing hymns at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers, a day before the official beginning of the 45-day-long Maha Kumbh festival, in Prayagraj, India, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

A Hindu devotee looks into a mirror as he gets his forehead smeared by a holy man at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers, a day before the official beginning of the 45-day-long Maha Kumbh festival, in Prayagraj, India, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

A woman sells empty plastic containers as devotees arrive to bathe at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers, a day before the official beginning of the 45-day-long Maha Kumbh festival, in Prayagraj, India, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

Sanitation workers walk after cleaning an area on the banks of the Ganges river, where the 45-day-long Maha Kumbh festival will officially begin on Monday, in Prayagraj, India, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

A Hindu holy man smokes marijuana at his makeshift living quarters at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers, a day before the official beginning of the 45-day-long Maha Kumbh festival, in Prayagraj, India, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

Hindu holy men walk in a procession a day before the 45-day-long Maha Kumbh festival, at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers, in Prayagraj, India, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

Hindu holy men arrive in a procession at an akhara where they will stay during the 45-day-long Maha Kumbh festival beginning on Jan. 13, at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers, in Prayagraj, India, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

A Hindu woman devotee adjusts her saree as she changes after taking bath at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers, a day before the official beginning of the 45-day-long Maha Kumbh festival, in Prayagraj, India, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

Hindu women devotees sing hymns as they gather at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers, a day before the official beginning of the 45-day-long Maha Kumbh festival, in Prayagraj, India, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

Hindu women devotees pray after taking bath at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers, a day before the official beginning of the 45-day-long Maha Kumbh festival, in Prayagraj, India, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

A devotee garlands a senior Hindu holy man walking in a procession, a day before the 45-day-long Maha Kumbh festival, in Prayagraj, India, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)