FC Barcelona draws with Espanyol and continues leading in Spain

The leader FC Barcelona stumbled in his first ‘post-World Cup’ game and did not go beyond a 1-1 draw at home against Espanyol, this Saturday in the 15th round of the Spanish League, where he saw Real Madrid reach him on points.

On Friday, the team from the capital, which entered the matchday as second, two points behind Barça, had taken the provisional lead after winning 2-0 at Valladolid with a brace from Karim Benzema.

This Saturday’s draw at the Camp Nou allows Barça to continue first due to a better goal difference compared to Real Madrid (+28 against +21), but both now have the same points, with which the fight for the title still acquires more excitement for the start of 2023.

Marcos Alonso, just three days after his 32nd birthday, had managed very soon (minute 7) to put Barcelona ahead. It was from a Raphinha corner kick, which Andreas Christensen headed in for Alonso, also with a header, to push the visitors’ net.

Espanyol was then able to tie the game with a penalty converted at minute 73 by Joselu, who thus scored his eighth goal in this League and established himself as his team’s top scorer this season.

Both formations could not finish with eleven, due to the expulsions of Jordi Alba (78) in Barcelona and the Brazilian Vinicius Souza (81) in Espanyol.

Barça thus paid with this tie for not having managed to seal the game when they had an advantage on the scoreboard and had chances to have signed the second.

Ansu Fati (10), Marcos Alonso himself (18), Raphinha (37) or Robert Lewandowski (55) were missing good chances and the equalizer was a hard blow for a Camp Nou that exceeded 88,000 spectators to witness this derby on the last day of 2022.

Already tied on the scoreboard, the Espanyol goalkeeper, Álvaro Fernández, was the hero of his team with two great interventions that prevented Barça from winning, first against Christensen (86) and then against Lewandowski (87).

The Polish gunner, the top scorer in the Spanish League with 13 goals, was able to play this game after receiving a precautionary suspension on Friday of the three-game punishment he had received for his expulsion against Osasuna in the last game before the World Cup break.

“We slowed down. You can talk about the referee, but it was our fault. When you forgive so many occasions, something like this can happen. We should have sentenced,” lamented the Barcelona coach, Xavi Hernández, at a press conference.

The point added this Saturday allows Espanyol (16th) to continue one point above the relegation places, set by Sevilla (18th), who also drew 1-1 on Friday in their visit to another team involved in the same fight for salvation, Celta de Vigo (17th).

This Sunday the 15th Spanish round is completed with two matches also between neighboring teams, Villarreal-Valencia and Real Sociedad-Osasuna. (D)