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Barcelona continued their dominance over Espanyol in the Catalan derby with a 3-1 victory over their crosstown rivals.
Despite the fairly comfortable 3-1 scoreline, Barcelona had to weather a second-half onslaught from crosstown rivals Espanyol to maintain their winning run.
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Key match details
Barcelona had a blistering start to the game and looked set to run away with the tie when Lamine Yamal's audacious trivela pass found Dani Olmo in the box. The former Leipzig man finished with a flourish to give Barcelona the lead inside 12 minutes.
Despite the early goal, Espanyol were not deflated and they struck to their game plan, attempting to exploit Barcelona's aggressive highline. On multiple occasions, they managed to play into the space behind but were caught offside on each attempt.
About ten minutes after the opener, Raphinha doubled Barcelona's lead, continuing his exceptional scoring form this season. Peeling off the last man, the Brazilian was expertly picked out by Casado before finishing past Joan Garcia.
Espanyol thought their industry paid off in the 28th minute when they found the back of the net, but the goal was ruled out for offside. Three minutes after the reprieve, Olmo scored again for Barcelona, finishing into the bottom right corner from the edge of the box.
Espanyol came out roaring in the second-half and had another goal ruled out for offside in the 58th minute. Moments later, however, they timed their runs perfectly and Javi Puardo finished off a sweeping team move to register Los Periquitos on the scoresheet.
Espanyol could not keep up the intensity and Barcelona wrestled back control, winning 3-1 and opening a nine-point gap on Real Madrid after Los Blancos’s clash against Valencia was postponed following the devastating flooding that ravaged the region.
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