Barcelona vs. Espanyol – Spanish La Liga Review (Part 6)
Right before the half time whistle, Barcelona had another great chance to double their lead. It was Lionel Messi once again who troubled the Espanyol’s defensive walls. The Argentinean striker got past three Espanyol defenders and made way into the penalty area.
Even though Messi could easily have taken a shot on goal, he unselfishly passed the ball onto the on-rushing David Villa. To be fair to David Villa, he was beaten by the Cameroonian goal stopper, Carlos Kameni in the race to the ball and another great chance was gone to waste.
As the second half started, Espanyol looked to be quite satisfied with their first half performance. The visitors did not allow Barcelona to play their usual free-flowing game. However, most of the goal scoring opportunities fell http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Barcelona-c38604’s way.
With only three minutes gone in the first half, Barcelona doubled their lead with an unlikely source – Gerard Pique.
Barcelona won a corner kick early in the second half and Xavi Hernandez stood over the ball to take the corner kick. The Spanish maestro delivered an inch perfect corner towards http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Carlos-Kameni-c8464 simply had no chance of stopping it from going in.
A few minutes later, Espanyol found their lost spirit. It was the Argentinean striker http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Osvaldo-c28821 who troubled the Barcelona defensive walls all over again.
Osvaldo received a perfect through ball from http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Daniel-c9879 Alves tried to make a recovery tackle. Osvaldo flicked the ball forward with his right foot and launched a perfect shot on target.
The Barcelona goal stopper http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Victor-c36011 Valdes was on his feet and made no mistake as he punched the ball to safety.
Barcelona then reorganized themselves and went forward to find the third goal to kill the tie off.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Raul-c30652 Rodriguez saw the ball being cleared out wide for a corner kick.
Barcelona took the corner short and played their usual passing game to see Espanyol getting tired of pressing them in the midfield. It was hard for the visitors to cope up with the pace of the game during the later stages and Barcelona easily kept possession of the ball.
Later, both the teams sat back and moved the ball around in their own halves and none of the sides really showed urgency to score another goal. Barcelona simply knew they were to win the game and they did not really make a move forward to find the back of the net.
The game finished with Barcelona taking all three points – all thanks to goals from Andres Iniesta and Gerard Pique.
With this win Barcelona managed to keep themselves only a point away from the Spanish La Liga title. On the other hand, Espanyol are still fighting for the Europa League spot. Barcelona have to face Levante next weekend while Espanyol have to face a tough task as they play http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Valencia-c40863 next weekend.
Tags: