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4-1: Two fateful minutes
After a good first half everything change after the break
Espanyol lost to Barcelona in the derby of the city of Barcelona in the last match league of the year 2016. The white and blue team played well and offered a good image against one of the best teams in Europe but didn’t have the prize of the points. After a good first half, everything changed in the second 45 minutes. Diego López left the field injured and Barcelona sentence with goals of Suárez and Alba.
Quique Sánchez Flores was forced to make changes in his line up as three of his usual players (Leo Baptistao, Víctor Sánchez and Hernán Pérez) couldn’t make it for the match due to different injuries. The manager decided to put Diop in the middle, Piatti back on the right and Javi López in the right back wing.
The white and blue team started well making feel Barcelona uncomfortable as they didn’t find the way to create danger near Diego López’s area. In fact, the visitors started to go forward and they had two good arrivals that didn’t finish in goal. However, the good match of Espanyol was suddenly spoilt when Suárez controlled a long pass from Iniesta to score the first goal of the derby.
Despite the goal, Espanyol kept playing with order and with clear ideas. It is true that they didn’t have great opportunities to score but Barcelona wasn’t dominating the match as other times. Messi, after a foul that the referee didn’t see o wanted to see, had the best chance to get the second one but the defence cleared the shot from the Argentinian.
The second half started with bad news for Espanyol. Diego López left the field injured after a good save in front Suárez. Roberto, that had played the two first matches, had a tough exam. The goalkeeper, in two minutes, received two goals and there finished Espanyol’s options to win the match. David López gave some emotion to the final minutes with a great goal, but Messi finished with all the options.