Barça falls asleep against Espanyol

Straight

Barça fell asleep in the winter heat, overconfident at the beginning and deranged at the end, and gave up a draw that Espanyol and Madrid were equally grateful for.

The blue and whites fought as best they could while waiting for an opportunity that the blaugrana ended up conceding in a stomp from Marcos Alonso to Joselu.

The 1-1 no longer moved in a few minutes enlivened by the leadership of Mateu Lahoz.

The referees and the VAR do not stop getting their hands on a League that has also been prosecuted by Lewandowski's precautionary measure that fell out of a drawer in a Madrid court.

BCNBarcelona

1

Ter Stegen, Alba, Marcos Alonso, Sergi Roberto (Alex Balde, min. 81), A. Christensen, Frenkie De Jong (Koundé, min. 81), Pedri, Gavi (Busquets, min. 51), Raphinha (Ousmane Dembélé, min. 61), Lewandowski and Ansu Fati (Ferrán Torres, min. 61)

ENG Spanish

1

Álvaro Fernández, Cabrera, Óscar Gil (Rubén Sánchez, min. 89), Sergi Gómez, Brian (Aleix Vidal, min. 89), Vinicius, Melamed (Javi Puado, min. 56), Calero (Edu Expósito, min. 56) , Braithwaite (Simo, min. 85), Darder and Joselu

Goals

1-0 min.

7: Marcos Alonso.

1-1 min.

73: Joselu.

Referee

Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz

Yellow cards Ansu Fati (min. 25), Brian (min. 30), Cabrera (min. 31), Calero (min. 54), Vinicius (min. 73), Ferrán Torres (min. 74), Pedri (min. 75), Joselu (min. 81), Javi Puado (min. 95) and Arnau Tenas (min. 96)

Mateu Lahoz seemed like a very comfortable gunslinger in the Camp Nou hall with his 16 cards and his just demeanor, unable to understand and accompany the game, protagonist of a derby without protagonists due to the disinterest of Barça and the regret of Espanyol.

Perhaps Marcos Alonso, author of the Barca goal and the penalty for the Blue and Whites, and goalkeeper Álvaro Fernández stood out.

Espanyol did not appear in the box -there were no managers- nor in the stands -no scarves or shirts were seen due to a Barça ban- nor on the pitch until 1-1 and the appearance of Álvaro.

It is not just any result if one takes into account that Espanyol had lost the last 14 games played at the Camp Nou and scored only three goals, unable to win since 2009 when Lo Pelat headed as a blue and white after being acclaimed for his feet at the Barca.

It happens that the derbies are carried by the devil and a 25-point difference is nothing in the same way that having Zamora and the Pichichi of the League does not count either.

There was hardly any news from Ter Stegen and the pardoned Lewandowski.

Espanyol's suffering finally prevailed over Barça's joy after the dispute began 1-0.

It was of little use to Diego Martínez to have many days to prepare for the game, after only the Danish Braithwaite attended the World Cup, because his defense was defeated as soon as he started in a corner kick riveted by Marcos Alonso.

The ball went from Lewandowski's head to Christensen's to end up in Marcos' head in the face of the blue and white shock and the surprise of Álvaro, who regained ownership lost due to his blunder against Valencia.

Espanyol did not defend or attack, arranged in a permeable 4-2-3-1, and Barça played and combined, so loose and happy that Marcos Alonso finished off more than Lewandowski.

In the absence of unbalancing players, and also important ones, marked by individual concessions, Espanyol had no sense of team either, relieved by the comfort of Barça.

The azulgranas noticed such a simple game that they forgot to close the scoring, poorly tuned in the auction, and they recreated themselves until they abandoned themselves to the disgust of the Camp Nou.

melee encounter

Espanyol took the match to hand-to-hand and Barça lost the thread of the game, slowed down and got tangled up in a bad way, willing to also compete in fouls and cards, to also argue with the referee and cheat a derby that it declined so much that Mateo Lahoz whistled the end of the first half when the 45th minute had not yet fallen on many clocks. There had been no continuity in Barcelona football, the most reliable footballers began to lose the ball and the fans were scared by their superiority by Óscar Gil in the brand of Ansu Fati.

The score was the best news for Espanyol at half-time after he had only kicked on goal when Nico Melamed arrived.

The slowdown continued at the beginning of the second half until Espanyol began to press more and Xavi sent Busquets to warm up to replace the sore Gavi.

You had to change the pace of the match, give the ball more speed, be finer in the pass and wait for Lewandowski to hit it.

There was no way for the Polish center forward to find Álvaro's goal.

Barcelona played without forwards and Espanyol did not need defenders in a very subdued match at the sunny and packed Camp Nou.

The fans were not missing even in the last game of the year, aware that the team supports the club after there are no levers left to activate in Laporta's office.

The spectators appreciated that Xavi replaced the wingers, Ansu and Raphinha with Ferran and Dembélé, while Diego Martínez's boys cheered.

The coach had managed to redirect the derby after the 1-0.

The game got so silly for Barça that Espanyol equalized after Marcos Alonso stepped on Joselu.

The referee awarded a penalty and the forward did not forgive: 1-1.

Joselu's eighth goal in the League brought the derby back to the start to the irritation of the Camp Nou.

Tension then took over the contest, fights followed one another and the Mateu Lahoz show appeared.

The mess was monumental and the two teams ended up with ten due to the expulsions of Alba and Wini after the referee pardoned the expulsion of Puado and corrected himself with the Var on the red card shown to Cabrera.

The referee served as an alibi for Barça to explain why Madrid caught him in the lead of the League.

Xavi's latest substitutions did not help to find the path to victory either and Álvaro appeared to save two goal shots, one from Christensen and the second from Lewandowski, to whom it was useless to aspire to an à la carte sanction and gain time not It is known for what or against whom after playing and not being able to break the tie in the Camp Nou derby.

No one will complain at Espanyol because of the football of their team but rather because of the resistance of their players;

sometimes resisting is winning and even more so at the Camp Nou.

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