Espanyol vs. Barcelona: Winners and Losers from La Liga
The Catalan derby was a feisty and entertaining affair, but neither side made the breakthrough as the game finished 0-0 at Estadi Cornella-El Prat in La Liga on Saturday.
Both teams went close, with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez both hitting the woodwork for Barcelona and Espanyol seeing two efforts cleared off the goal line, but there were certainly more yellow cards than clear-cut chances in this particular encounter.
Here are all our biggest winners and losers from the game.
Winner: Marco Asensio
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Espanyol's on-loan Real Madrid man Marco Asensio has impressed throughout most of the season, and Saturday was more of the same.
From an aggressive approach to closing down and being quick to help lead the line in the first half when he played as a No. 10, to then showing great footwork, dribbling ability and pace on the counter when playing wider after the break, Asensio was one of Espanyol's best outlets and a constant trigger for the rest of the team to step upfield.
If he finds consistency in his game, he can certainly impact at the top end of La Liga, whether that's at Real or on loan at a better side next term.
Loser: Gerard Pique and Javier Mascherano
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It's a little harsh perhaps to label Barcelona's centre-back pairing losers after they kept a clean sheet, but that statistic is more down to luck and a lack of finishing than their own resilience and qualities.
Javier Mascherano was too worried about the grappling and physicality of Espanyol's attackers in the first half—not really doing his primary job of defending and recycling the ball from deep as he kept being closed down with some aggression.
Gerard Pique was better in one-on-one duals, but his passing out of defence—and back to his goalkeeper—wasn't the best, and he put his side under pressure more than once. The duo were often fortunate that Espanyol's attackers chose the wrong passing option after winning the ball high up the park.
Winner: Luis Suarez
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With Barcelona struggling to make their mark on the game in the final third, it was the running and hard work of Luis Suarez that created the better openings for his team and enabled the likes of Lionel Messi and Neymar to begin to find more space.
Suarez arguably should have scored when he struck the post early in the second half, but again, the opportunity was created from his good running behind the defence and fine footwork on the ball.
Messi didn't have his best game, and the fouls coming in on Neymar limited the Brazilian's ability to impact on the game in anything but short bursts on this occasion.
Loser: Joan Jordan
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Espanyol's physical approach was overly aggressive at times, and Joan Jordan was one of those to cross the line more than once.
His blatant tug-backs of Barcelona shirts in midfield and his cynical tackles to break up play were beyond a robust approach and into territory that could easily have seen him sent-off, and it was wise that his coach eventually subbed him in the late stages of the match.
Pape Kouly Diop had his moments, too, alongside Jordan in midfield, but it was Jordan himself who certainly made more challenges that crossed the line.
Barcelona boss Luis Enrique said in his post-game conference that Espanyol "were very intense, but that was something we knew about before the game," per the Barcelona's Twitter account—which is a rather polite way of putting the home team's approach.
That said, it was effective enough to stop the league leaders creating a stream of chances.
Winner: Constantin Galca
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New Espanyol head coach Constantin Galca saw his team end the match with a point, and they could even have taken more. Regardless of scoreline, though, this was a much better performance from Espanyol.
The side are going to need plenty of displays of this nature over the rest of the season in terms of organisation, willingness to work hard and belief in playing forward to counter-attack.
Espanyol are nowhere near clear of the relegation zone even though they have better options available to them compared to the likes of Rayo Vallecano or Levante, for example. The side's talented players must produce similar performances more often to move from battlers in the bottom six or seven to a mid-table team with aspirations of pushing higher.
