Barça put on the tailcoat to sing the alirón in the field of a missing Espanyol. The blue and white players did not appear and many fans left early to avoid seeing how Barcelona was crowned. The Catalans gave themselves the best outcome to reach a title announced since Madrid was defeated at the Camp Nou. There has been no other team or debate during the tournament other than the Barça game. The discussion ended every time Xavi had the best lineup, as happened at the RCDE Stadium. There was no derby or game in a night monopolized by Barcelona.
2
Pacheco, Brian (Luca Koleosho, min. 84), Cabrera, Óscar Gil, Sergi Gómez (Javi Puado, min. 45), César Montes, Darder, Melamed (Edu Expósito, min. 86), Denis Suárez (Calero, min. 45), Braithwaite (Adrià Pedrosa, min. 55) and Joselu
4
Ter Stegen, Koundé, Ronald Araújo (Alba, min. 62), Alex Balde, A. Christensen (Marcos Alonso, min. 74), Busquets, Pedri (Kessié Franck, min. 89), Frenkie De Jong, Lewandowski, Gavi ( Ansu Fati, min. 74) and Raphinha (Ousmane Dembélé, min. 62)
goals 0-1 min. 10: Lewandowski. 0-2 min. 20: Alex Bucket. 0-3 min. 40: Lewandowski. 0-4 min. 53: Koundé. 1-4 min. 72: Javi Puado. 2-4 min. 92: Joselu.
Referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea
Yellow cards Koundé (min. 1), Gavi (min. 38) and Alba (min. 81)
Although the relegation does not give up and the alirón had to wait, the leader affirmed himself as champion on the first occasion, after ridiculing Espanyol with four days to go to finish the League. The Barça ambition contrasted with the blue and white laziness in a match finished off by top scorer Lewandowski (21 goals) and governed by Pedri, undetectable between the lines for the Espanyol media and defenses. Despite the fact that the blue and whites haven’t beaten Barça since 2007 and they haven’t managed a single victory against the Barcelona fans at the RCDE Stadium, such an overwhelming or effective performance by Barça is not remembered, presided over by an impressive 2-4 victory.
The goals were falling since Barça’s full-backs, especially deep ones, very soon put an end to the vehemence of the Espanyol midfielders. The azulgranas played well and fast and the blue and whites ran without rhyme or reason in the surprised RCDE Stadium. Lewandowski pushed a cross from Balde into the net at 0-1, after Pedri had missed a goal called from Koundé’s pass, and Balde crowned a play woven by Pedri shortly after at the far post: 0-2. Around the man from Tenerife, Barcelona sewed the game happily and comfortably while the screams of the fans against Chen Yansheng’s board of directors resounded in the stands.
AFP7 via Europa Press (AFP7 via Europa Press)
Alejandro Garcia (EFE)
Andreu Dalmau (EFE)
AFP7 via Europa Press (AFP7 via Europa Press)
Alejandro Garcia (EFE)
Espanyol did not defend well nor did they press in time, excessively aware of the melee, of the fouls and also of the cards, very focused on Koundé, cautioned in minute 1 for a run-in with Brian Olivan. Espanyol bled inside and out, disoriented and disordered, always outnumbered in the divide, with no more air than the sentimental gas recovered with the arrival of Luis García. The coach was wrong with a reckless alignment and had no answers to Xavi’s game plan. At the foot or in space, Barça handled the ball and the spaces in the face of a passive Espanyol.
The fans whistled and Pedri walked around the field like Pedro at home, surprisingly familiar with the RCDE Stadium because of Espanyol’s resignation. The blue and whites never found the moment to get into the game because the 0-3 fell before the break, after Lewandowski finished off an assist from Raphinha, and the 0-4 was counted at the restart, when Luis García had moved the bench — he dismantled the defense of five and filled the midfield— and De Jong enabled the persevering Koundé.
Espanyol only cheered up from the 0-4 derision and when the game became a joke for Barça. Puado and in the end Joselu fixed the score, not the game, after three very serious interventions by Ter Stegen. The goalkeeper, one of the five Catalans who won the League in 2019 -along with Alba, Sergi Roberto, Dembélé and Busquets-, aspires to Zamora in the same way that Lewandowski wants the Pichichi to personify the title that Barcelona fans celebrated in Canaletas given the impossibility of accessing the RCDE Stadium.
The blaugrana couldn’t celebrate the League on the pitch either, instead they had to leave by legs when they had set up a rondo at the RCDE Stadium. Some fans jumped onto the field and began to blow up objects in a blushing ending for a Espanyol that has not come out of the relegation of the League, more sunk by the champion Barça.
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