Pitch invasion at the RCDE Stadium: Hundreds of Espanyol fans wait for the Barça party | Sports

Barbarism took over the RCDE Stadium. “Attention please, the police ask you to leave the stadium”, “please leave the stadium, force will be used by the police”, was heard over the loudspeakers of the Espanyol stadium. When the duel ended, while the Barcelona players celebrated the League title in the center circle, around 300 blue and white ultras jumped onto the field and threatened to sneak into the changing room tunnel.

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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

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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)

The National Anti-Violence Commission had classified the Catalan derby as a high-risk match. And Espanyol, as Barcelona had already done in the first round match at the Camp Nou, did not allow Barça fans (if any) to wear any type of Barça symbol. This was reported on their website: “Reciprocally, and as reported at the time, RCD Espanyol will not allow access to FC Barcelona fans who have purchased or are going to purchase tickets for the derby that display any symbol of the visiting team: scarves, shirts or any other item with the colors of the rival team”. The police had reliably guarded the arrival of the Barcelona bus in Cornellà, after having moved the Espanyol fans away from the route taken by the Barça expedition.

Everything seemed calm in the derby. It had been in the previous one, it was also in the stands of the Espanyol stadium. Barcelona had resolved the match before minute 20 and the blue and white fans had forgotten about their historic rival to target their club’s board of directors. The chants of “Puta Barça” were replaced by “Resignation directive”, “Chino go now (in reference to the largest shareholder and president, Chen Yansheng)”. In addition, the stands had begun to empty. In fact, when the derby ended, of the 27,360 that had started in the stands, approximately 5,000 fans remained.

When the countdown began for Barcelona to celebrate the title, the Barça players embraced on the bench. It was at that moment that the acts of violence began: objects were thrown at Xavi Hernández’s players. Not step over. The referee whistled the end of the duel and the Barça players first greeted the Espanyol players and then met in the central circle and celebrated the League with the coaching staff and the staff of collaborators.

At that time, the invasion of the field began. The footballers and members of Barcelona were alerted and took refuge in the race in the changing room tunnel, while the police and security personnel tried to stop the radicals, most of them hooded, some with chairs in their hands. The action of the police was not enough. Several ultras slipped into the entrance to the changing room tunnel and confronted Busquets, Jordi Alba, Marcos Alonso and Araujo.

“As we have always done, Espanyol shows its forceful rejection of any type of violence in the world of football and will use all the resources at our disposal to eradicate it, showing, as always, full collaboration with the security forces in whatever they require. ”, said the blue and white entity in a statement. “We want to apologize to the world of football for these events. Those who have jumped onto the pitch do not represent the image of Espanyol, far from it. These do not represent our club and we will do everything possible to eradicate this type of situation, which cannot happen in our stadium”, said Mao Ye, CEO of Espanyol, who regretted the events and promised to find a solution. “From the club we have always taken all possible security measures,” he said. Although, something went wrong, so he stated that they would review the protocols. Luis García, at the end of the game and in a press conference, assumed: “It is something that we cannot be proud of, it is something that must be condemned.”

Xavi Hernández and other members of the club had tried to get the players to collect themselves to celebrate in the locker room. But it was already late. “At that moment I thought that it was enough. The celebration is normal, but I understand that we are not in our house and there can be no disrespect. I know that it is difficult to control, but I have told them that the best thing was to go in now”, explained the coach, just after the game. In the press room, he added: “I haven’t seen the fans up close. I was already inside. I wouldn’t give more importance to that. It is an extraordinary title and it is normal to want to celebrate it. We had been celebrating a job since July.” Sergio Busquets, captain of Barcelona, ​​concluded: “That’s how it happened. It was a derby, nothing more. It’s been hot at times. The end was a pity and it crossed the line ”.

The rivalry, which had begun in a humorous tone on Sunday morning, had turned into a grotesque after the derby. “You want a derby”, the Barça entity had tweeted with the image of Gerard Piqué, a historic agitator in the duels between Espanyol and Barça. The Cornellà entity did not reply on social networks. Yes, a surprise was saved for when the Catalans jumped in to warm up. Pa’tipos como tú, the song in which Shakira, in collaboration with Bizarrap, called her ex-partner, Gerard Piqué, anything but handsome, sounded from the speakers of the blue and white stadium.

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