Barcelona Derby Lives upto its expectation
FC Barcelona remained at the top of table going into the mid season break with a 5-1 win over city rivals Espanyol. Pedro and Villa scored twice and Xavi scored once for Barca in a very tough match. This definitely was the best game seen in La Liga till now in this season. With this victory we have opened a 5 point gap in the top of table. Real Madrid has the chance to reduce it tomorrow against Sevilla, but then this is a good way to keep the pressure on Mourinho and his boys. Guardiola decided to go in to the last match of 2010 with his strong line-up. So we had Alves, Pique, Puyol and Abidal in the defense. BUsquets, Iniesta and Xavi formed the midfield. And as usual Messi, Villa and Pedro formed the attacking trio. Andres Iniesta received a heroes welcome as expected throughout the night.
We were onto the job from the word go. In the 4th minute Busquets tried a bicycle kick of Xavi corner, which went just wide. In the 9th minute Messi forced the first save from kameni, after steeling the ball from the Espanyol defense. In the very next minute Alves robbed the ball off the defender and was straight on goal but squared it to Messi, who surprisingly hit it high over the bar. In the 19th minute Pedro put us 1-0 ahead finishing off a move which he only started. Busquets won the ball in our half and found Pedro in the middle of pitch, Pedro knocked it to Messi who put the striker infront with a great pass. In the 30th minute Xavi made it 2-0 after a hell lot of action in the box. Messi finds Villa on the left in the middle of the pitch who send Pedro in, who cut the ball back to Messi in centre who send it to Xavi on right; Xavi squared it to centre to find Alves who failed to direct it but the rebound fell back to Xavi and he made no mistake with that. In the 35th minute Valdes pulled out a blinder of a one handed save to deny Callejon after being put through by Garcia. The first half finished with Villa flashing a shot high above the post and then being closed down from a very promising position. Eventhough we were leading by two goals to nil, we were far from comfortable. It was real hard work out there with the constant pressing by Espanyol team.
In the 50th minute Iniesta played a great ball puytting Pedro through some 40 yards from goal, he raced at full speed and was one on one with kameni but chose to square it to Messi which was cut out in the end. The very next minute Iniesta forced a good save from kameni from outside the box. In the 6th minute Pedro managed to get his second goal after latching on to a rebound from a Messi shot. That goal was all about Messi, set up the goal with a great run and an excelelnt shot w, kameni did well to block it but Pedro was on hand. In the 63rd minute Espanyol got one goal back through Osvaldo. That goal was the first one conceded in some time. We scored 31 goals before conceding this one. With that goals suddenly Espanyol started to raise their game and was constantly putting under pressure. In the 72nd minute Osvaldo once again forced Valdes to make a fine save after Xavi gave away the ball cheaply. But Barca made the match safe with their fourth goal of night through Villa in the 76th minute. Messi put Villa through with a great pass and the forward made no mistake. In the 84th minute Villa scored his second after being put through on the left by Xavi. In the 86th minute Iniesta was replaced and duly left receiving a stunning ovation. The match ended with Bojan who replaced Pedro forcing two saves from Kameni.
This was Barca's most toughest test till date this season. The fact that we won the match with a comfortable goal margin shows our real strength. We were running through opponents in recent matches and this match was a welcome change. The players did really well to raise their game and our finishing were top class. The final scorecard may be a bit unfair to Espanyol, but it showed that we are playing absolutely brilliant especially in the final third. Messi may not have scored but was once again involved in setting up his team mates. This victory confirms us as the winter champions. Its a great omen, as usually the winter champions emerge as the final league winners.
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