Espanyol vs. Barcelona: Winners and Losers from Copa del Rey
Barcelona strode through to the next round of the Copa del Rey as they beat Espanyol 2-0 at Estadi Cornella-El Prat for a 6-1 aggregate victory.
Early chances at both ends failed to yield a breakthrough until Munir El Haddadi ran onto a Lionel Messi pass, rounded the goalkeeper and finished well.
Barcelona were controlled throughout after that and defended well when they needed, sealing the victory late on with another Munir goal.
Here are all the winners and losers from the match on Wednesday.
Winner: Munir El Haddadi
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Take everything else out of Munir's game and performance in any given fixture, and the big criticism of him is that he doesn't score goals at this level and isn't capable of adding to the tally that a world-class strike force already contributes to.
Against Espanyol, then, a great weight will have lifted off his shoulders, as he showed movement, composure and awareness to score the game's opening goal, rounding the 'keeper after a through pass and finishing well.
Munir worked hard throughout, and his endeavour was rewarded further with a late second goal.
Loser: The Continuing Aggression of Espanyol
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Both teams left a few divisive figures out of the match, not least because there were suspensions for some, but those on the pitch still put everything into the contest—and one or two for Espanyol weren't shy about crossing the line again.
A few individuals, including Salva, Abraham and Alvaro, put in over-the-top challenges, Felipe Caicedo went in unnecessarily and there were one or two dives in attempts to get Barcelona players booked, too—and in the case of Aleix Vidal, it worked.
Espanyol's crowd was disappointingly sparse again, too.
Winner: Marc-Andre ter Stegen
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The regular No. 2 goalkeeper for Barcelona, all Marc-Andre ter Stegen can do is continue to impress in the cup games he is allowed to play in—and he did that once again here against Espanyol.
Three times he denied Caicedo one-on-one, once especially with a great outstretched leg, while he also made two good saves and some important aerial interventions.
The German was calm in possession, good with his distribution and was concentrated and professional throughout—everything he needs to be.
Loser: Felipe Caicedo
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Espanyol's striker Felipe Caicedo did reasonably well as an outlet, but his touch and end product was non-existent despite getting into good positions inside the penalty area and final third in general.
He was bested by Ter Stegen a number of times and also lost out in the physical battle against Javier Mascherano and Jeremy Mathieu on occasions.
His strike rate isn't good enough considering Espanyol don't have too many others to contribute to the scoresheet, and although his side were essentially out of this tie before kick-off, they still would have expected better from him in such a big game.
Winner: Luis Enrique
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The Barcelona boss rotated a number of his regular players once more, gave game time to the two new additions to the playing squad and was able to leave two of the more inflammatory individuals, Neymar and Gerard Pique, out entirely.
The tie was largely won in the first leg, of course, so it was with confidence and composure that Luis Enrique's team waltzed through this second leg, and they continue along the path toward what they'll hope will be another final appearance and shot at silverware.
It's worth remembering that the Barcelona boss has won every tournament he has competed in as a Barcelona manager, with the exception of the Spanish Super Copa. He'll want to keep that going in this competition at least.
