Gerard Pique Leads Barcelona to Draw vs. Espanyol to Stay Unbeaten in La Liga

A late header from Gerard Pique saw Barcelona preserve their unbeaten La Liga record as they came from behind to draw 1-1 with local rivals Espanyol on Sunday.

The hosts went ahead in the second half as Gerard Moreno headed home Sergio Garcia's cross, but Barca were not to be denied and a Pique header from a Lionel Messi corner rescued a point for the La Liga leaders.

Ernesto Valverde opted to make changes to his squad and left Messi on the bench with Paco Alcacer coming into the starting lineup. In defence, Nelson Semedo and Lucas Digne also came in for Sergi Roberto and Jordi Alba. The two teams shared their lineups on Twitter:

Both teams made a tentative start to the match, and they were not helped by the extremely wet conditions. ESPN FC's Samuel Marsden noted how the heavy rain had affected the pitch:

The visitors enjoyed the majority of the possession in the first half but struggled to create too many chances. Philippe Coutinho came the closest as he hit the underside of the crossbar with a curling shot from just outside the box after 22 minutes.

Opta showed how Barcelona have been denied by the woodwork more times than any other club in Europe's top five leagues:

Espanyol also had sight of goal as Leo Baptistao shrugged off Andres Iniesta and fired off a shot, but it was straight at goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen who made the save. The Brazilian then had another chance 10 minutes later but could only head over the bar under pressure from Semedo.

Sports writer Andy West nearly summed up an uneventful first half:

Espanyol thought they had scored right at the start of the second half as Baptistao picked out Moreno to fire home, but it was correctly disallowed as the ball had gone out of play before the striker scored.

With his team struggling to offer much as an attacking force, Valverde opted to bring on Roberto and Messi with the heavy rain still causing problems. Football journalist Rik Sharma illustrated just how wet the playing surface had become:

Espanyol were starting to look the more dangerous side and made the breakthrough on 66 minutes. Sergio Garcia picked up a goal-kick from Ter Stegen and crossed for Moreno to head home. Football journalist David Cartlidge showed how important he is to Espanyol:

Barcelona just did not look like scoring and could not play their usual passing game on the sodden surface. Valverde sent on Alba, and the visitors began to play a more direct style as time started to run out.

The approach paid off, too, as Pique headed home Messi's corner with eight minutes of normal time remaining. Tempers then threatened to boil over as Moreno went in on the Barca scorer, which sparked a mini-brawl between both sets of players.

Play eventually restarted, but neither team could fashion a winner and will probably be happy with a point apiece, particularly given the conditions.

Barcelona were not at their best, but once again they demonstrated their ability to secure a result when below-par, and their unbeaten run continues.