Hansi Flick and Co. kicked the brand new yr off to the proper begin on the RCDE Stadium final night time, taking house a large win within the Catalan derby to ascertain a short lived seven-point hole with Actual Madrid.
Up till the 86th minute, the derby fixture was goalless and all indicators pointed to the 2 groups splitting the factors. Dani Olmo, nevertheless, had different plans and scored a jaw-dropping objective from distance to place the guests forward.
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Robert Lewandowski quickly adopted it up with a second objective within the ninetieth minute, sealing the outcome and making certain that Barcelona had been out of sight.
The win is important, not solely by way of beginning the brand new yr effectively but in addition by way of momentum for the Supercup, with Hansi Flick, particularly, .
Barça Common brings you three speaking factors from Espanyol 0-2 Barcelona.
The tightest Catalan derby in years
Barcelona and Espanyol have confronted off comparatively recurrently in recent times, barring the interval of Espanyol’s relegation, however by no means has a derby been tighter than it was yesterday.
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Manolo Gonzalez’s aspect has been doing an exceptional job to date this season, and plenty of anticipated the outing to be a tough one for Hansi Flick’s aspect, and the sport turned out precisely as anticipated.
Barcelona could effectively have had near 70% of the ball, however it was largely Espanyol who dictated the game-state and tormented the guests with a structured strategy.
A well-deserved victory for Barcelona. (Picture by Alex Caparros/Getty Photos)
Their defence was rock-solid, they usually intercepted the guests’ final move with nice effectivity for a lot of the. Recreation. They performed rapidly by way of the center, transitioning with fast tempo, and solely lacked by way of medical ending.
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Espanyol created 4 massive possibilities to Barcelona’s 5 on the RCDE Stadium final night time, racking up an xG of 1.43, which was solely narrowly inferior to Flick’s aspect’s 1.67.
In truth, they didn’t should lose on the night time and can really feel laborious accomplished by dropping factors owing to Dani Olmo’s second of brilliance.
Joan Garcia steals the present
Espanyol did every part proper final night time besides the ultimate contact, however there was as a lot of a hand of Joan Garcia in denying them the opener as there was on them for poor ending.
Barcelona’s goalkeeper, who solely left Espanyol to affix them in the summertime, was all the time going to be within the highlight on the RCDE Stadium with native followers ambushing him and popping out in giant numbers to make their dissatisfaction recognized.
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The environment was hostile towards him for the whole 90 minutes with even chants directed towards him and objects being hurled on the sphere. Garcia, nevertheless, put all that to mattress and spoke by way of his efficiency.
What the shot-stopper did final night time has merely not been seen at Barcelona for years now as he single-handedly took management of the again and made save after save to disclaim Espanyol any probability on objective.
Within the first half, he cleverly used Gerard Martin to pressure a rebound save after which made a surprising fingertip deflection to disclaim Espanyol a sure-shot opener. Within the second half, his most notable contribution was the full-length dive in a 1v1 state of affairs to diffuse the risk.
On the finish of 90 minutes, the brand new signing completed with six saves and an xG of 1.73 prevented. All six of his saves got here from photographs contained in the field, and he additionally accomplished 100$% of his tried runs out and made one punched clearance.
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Garcia additionally excelled as a sweeper, coming effectively off his line to diffuse the risk on quite a few events, and accomplished the sport with near 90% passes accomplished. He was named the on his return house – and deservedly so.
Substitutes seal the win
Hansi Flick deployed a ahead 4 of Lamine Yamal, Raphinha, Marcus Rashford, and Ferran Torres towards the native rivals final night time, however three of the 4 superstars had uncharacteristically poor outings.
Lewandowski again within the objectives once more. (Picture by Alex Caparros/Getty Photos)
Whereas Raphinha by no means actually acquired going taking part in because the mediapunta, Torres struggled to get on the tip of the ball and into goalscoring positions with poor touches. Rashford, in the meantime, appeared confused and disconnected from the staff with poor selections.
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All through the primary half, it was solely Yamal pulling the strings for Barcelona and making an attempt to create possibilities, each with aerial crosses and through-balls. Nevertheless, not one of the three remaining forwards may craft up something noteworthy.
The sport, finally, opened up much better when Hansi Flick made wholesale substitutions within the second half.
Fermin Lopez approaching for Rashford already improved the staff considerably at half-time, however Dani Olmo and Robert Lewandowski’s introduction for Raphinha and Ferran fully modified the sport and it’s no shock that each objectives finally got here from them combining.
It was Fermin’s consciousness and concept of handing the ball to Olmo in a good place that helped the staff take the lead final night time, because the latter struck a stunner from distance into the highest nook. A gem of a objective, began and completed by gamers off the bench.
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As soon as once more, it was Fermin who single-handedly created the opening for Barcelona’s second objective by way of his tenacity. Whereas he may have gone for the shot himself, he discovered one other substitute in Robert Lewandowski to place the ball into the again of the online.