Espanyol was eager to repeat the same plan they used in the Santiago Bernabeu against Real Madrid but did not count on the sheer voracity of a great Barca. An insatiable Barcelona took charge of the game and finished off Espanyol within half an hour. Goals came from Xavi, Pedro (2) and Messi and the game turned into an exercise in footballing supremacy. The league leader hopes to emerge even stronger as the best team in the world at the FIFA Ballon d’Or awards tonight.
It didn’t look very promising from the start for Javier Aguirre’s Espanyol and they were relying on their keeper far too much. Barcelona knew how to tackle the defensive network of ten men Espanyol had behind the ball. Little by little Barcelona is learning how to deal with such tactics and they did it with ease – moving the ball around from one side of the field to the other waiting for the decisive pass and then go in for the kill.
Cesc and Iniesta were very creative in the midfield. Tito Vilanova could count on them along with Xavi, Messi and Pedro. Espanyol found themselves on rocky ground just after 10 minutes at the Nou Camp when Xavi opened the scoring after a great team effort.
The Barca crowd was excited by what the Catalan side accomplished in the first half. Their football was constant and only a Sergio Busquets clearance error could have cost them dearly if only Sergio Garcia had fired off a better shot at goal.
Pedro had an amazing night. The forward from the Canary Islands scored the second on 16 minutes and the third on 27 minutes. The latter came after a masterful pass from Busquets from 30 yards for him to latch on to and lob a hapless Kiko Casilla. Pedro could have added two more goals too if the referee had not given offside twice during the second half.
Messi also wanted to join in and scored from the penalty spot on 29 minutes to sew up the game in the first half.
The lack of fight from Espanyol was quite disappointing and maybe their fight for relegation is finally getting to them. Barcelona’s superiority continued into the second half. The Barca crowd went wild when David Villa came on to substitute Cesc with 20 minutes of the second half gone. It wasn’t the same for Alexis when he came on for Pedro on 29 minutes, though.
This outstanding game was the perfect backdrop for either Leo Messi or Andres Iniesta to win the FIFA Ballon d’Or tonight.
