Barcelona stretch lead at LaLiga summit after routine win over rivals Espanyol
Barca had warmed up for this season’s first derby in the best possible way, with four goals against each of Bayern Munich and Real Madrid in the space of less than a week, making it all the less surprising to see the Blaugrana go ahead inside 12 minutes.
Shortly after Dani Olmo had headed over the bar, he atoned when firing in off the upright after receiving a smart ball from Lamine Yamal through Espanyol’s static defensive lines.
Espanyol’s response was very fleeting, with Javi Puado firing narrowly wide, before they were undone through another ball down the middle.
Marc Casado spotted Raphinha onside and under-marked, and his pass was precise, enabling the Brazilian to dink the ball beyond Joan Garcia.
Once again, Espanyol had some brief hope of making a game of it, and Jofre Carreras seemed to have pulled one back when slotting in the offside Omar El Hilali’s squared ball from the right flank, but the linesman’s flag cut his celebrations short.
This was just a brief respite for the visitors, for whom Olmo was proving to be a nightmare. And a second strike duly came from him in spectacular fashion late in the first half, when a defensive mix-up allowed Alejandro Balde to find Olmo on the edge of the box, and he rocketed a low effort into the bottom-left corner.
That meant Espanyol had nothing to lose as the half-time whistle went, but far from continuing to nap and try to simply keep the score down, they emerged from the dressing room with a greater sense of purpose. Their first real chance came from a direct Alvaro Tejero free-kick, which was palmed away well by Inaki Pena.
But he was helpless to stop Espanyol pulling one back, when a ball across the area from Carlos Romero found Puado unmarked at the near post, allowing him to convert with ease and give Espanyol a flicker of hope.
The visitors even had the ball in the net again soon after, and though it was ruled out after the ball had gone out of play before being crossed into the box, Barca knew that they needed to kill this game as a contest going into the final quarter-hour of normal time.
Clear chances to do so were not easy to come by, but in the end, it was just another day at the office for Barcelona. Having once again asserted their supremacy over the Catalan region, Hansi Flick’s men can now bask in the glow of six straight wins, with five coming by at least a three-goal margin.
It’ll take a lot – even for the likes of Real Madrid MVPs Vinicius Jr and Kylian Mbappe – to stop Barcelona now. As for Espanyol, they remain just a point outside the relegation zone, and are still yet to win on the road in this league campaign (D1, L5).
