Barcelona 1 – 1 Espanyol: Espanyol survives Mateu Lahoz’s steal

The first detail of quality was given by Gavi, controlling an assist from Alba and finishing off from the ground. At the exit of the corner that led to the shot, Marcos Alonso scored the first of the afternoon. Espanyol could not defend the play worse: up to three local headers -Lewandowski, Christensen and the author of the goal- in the small area. Espanyol is the worst team in the League defending set pieces. Good rhythm and ambition from Barcelona against some visitors who seemed already focused on the preparations for New Year’s Eve. Mateu’s first number was a long, secluded and unnecessary conversation with Ansu Fati so that he wouldn’t sting with a rival.

It’s not like Barcelona played a great game either, but with very little it was enough for him to get what he was trying to do. In any case, against such an inane opponent, a single goal advantage suggested little depth in the local virtues. Mateu’s second number was to run to the band to give Xavi a kiss -yes, a kiss-. He ignored the game, did not punish Oliván for a foul on Ansu with a yellow card, and caressed Xavi’s face and kissed him, making a fool of himself that if he ever becomes aware of it will be his greatest punishment.

Espanyol grew a little ten minutes before the break, and that little was enough to expose Barça’s seams, the lack of consistency in their game, which only shines when the opponent is very minor or disappears. “We are in, we are in,” the coach yelled at his players. Repeated turnovers by Ansu made us think of the sad and perhaps inevitable irrelevance of him as a player: Óscar Gil won every hand. With the illusion that the League made us return, and this tedium to say goodbye to the year.

The game returned from the break but not from tedium, nor from the local vulgarity, which began to equalize with the visitor’s certain improvement. Busquets came on for Gavi, injured. Dembélé also entered, to remind us of the exact idea of ​​football that the Terrassa coach has. Espanyol timidly tried to do something and Barcelona very kindly gave them all the facilities to achieve it. As if the Catalans wanted to compensate their rival for Lewandowski’s last-minute alignment, they gave their opponents a few minutes of something similar to the feeling that they could tie. An Espanyol too limited in resources did not decide to take advantage of the gifts, and it was increasingly soporific to attend the improvised disability contest. The 2-0 score seemed more likely than a draw, but a Barça team so specialized in getting into unnecessary trouble made rational predictions useless.

The rebound became the characteristic of the match. Before any hope of a fruitful play, incompetence surfaced and the ball cried. Given the little that the game gave of itself, Mateu tried to find the leading role for him by talking to the Espanyol coach, and touching him in such a way that he gave the idea that there could be something at the start. And in the 70th minute something that could not be ruled out happened, and that was that in a most mediocre play, Espanyol managed to get Barça to give them an absurd penalty by mistake. I don’t know if Espanyol deserved the tie, but the one who surely deserved it was Barça. Few games like this derby have deserved that the two teams share the minimum possible points.

And the only thing that was left to round off the nonsense, which was a true show by Mateu, also arrived. He sent off Jordi Alba for protesting and in a single play -the next one- he left the Spaniard with nine after expelling Cabrera with a direct red for an involuntary action and showing Vini the second for a foul that was, but did not deserve the card either . The VAR corrected Mateu where it could -the direct red card- and Cabrera returned to the field of play.

What Mateu stole from the Spaniard was returned by his goalkeeper Álvaro Fernández with two anthological saves. Spanish football is even poorer than Barça’s. But surviving such a heist deserves more than just a draw.