Barcelona goalkeeper Joan García starred in an intense night at the RCDE Stadium during Espanyol – Barcelona. While his brilliant performance with saving saves was key to the Barça’s 0-2 victory against Espanyol, the Sallent goalkeeper lived a moment of emotional contention when Dani Olmo and Robert Lewandowski sentenced the derby in the final stretch of the match.
Joan García did not want to celebrate the goals against his former team. The goalkeeper, who defended the blue and white colors from the age of 15 until last summer, remained serious and crestfallen in his area while his teammates celebrated the goals that gave Barcelona the three points. A gesture of respect towards the club that formed it and that made evident the emotional weight of a match marked by the hostility of the stands of the RCDE Stadium.
Stop after stop
The figure of the Catalan goalkeeper was decisive in a match where the Espanyol generated multiple clear scoring chances that could change the course of the match. His performance did not go unnoticed by his teammates, especially by Dani Olmo, scorer of the first Barça goal, who was full of praise for the goalkeeper after the match.
“Joan is amazing, a great goal that will give a lot to the team“, stated Olmo in statements to Movistar. The Barcelona midfielder highlighted that the goalkeeper “played a great game against his former fans”, thus recognizing the especially difficult circumstances in which Joan García had to perform during the 90 minutes.
Joan García’s performance began to shine from the 20th minute, when rHe fought one-on-one with Roberto and later he pushed his teammate Gerard Martín to avoid Pere Milla’s shot on the rebound. This first intervention of merit set the tone for what would be an exhibition between the three sticks.
Twenty minutes later came the stop that will remain in memory. In a quick transition, Carlos Romero drew a precise cross to Pere Milla, who finished off with a strong header from close range. Joan García used feline reflexes to reject the ball from a cornera museum stop that explains why Barcelona paid 25 million euros of his clause to Espanyol to sign him.
Espanyol’s rage
In the second half, Joan defended the goal where the fans of the Espanyol cheering stands are located,They once again showed posters with Barça rats. Far from being intimidated, the former blue and white goalkeeper He excelled with two more providential interventions for Roberto. First he thwarted the Andalusian striker’s dribble in a one-on-one situation, and then he pulled out another saving hand after a powerful shot from the ‘9’ parakeet. In the 76th minute he repeated the feat and prevented Carlos Romero from scoring.
From the parakeet side, Edu Expósito recognized that it is “a lot of anger”“that the derby slips away after the chances his team had, an indirect testimony to the extraordinary performance of Joan García. “We must look at Levante next week,” stressed the Espanyol player, leaving behind a match marked by offensive frustration.
Afternoon of pinches
The night in Cornellà was especially complicated for Joan García even before the opening whistle. The 224 days since his last game as an Espanyo playerl, when the club certified its permanence against Las Palmas on May 24, were not enough to soften the reception of a fan who felt his signing for the eternal citizen rival was a betrayal.
The whistles began at 8:13 p.m., 47 minutes before the start of the matchand they did not stop every time the goalkeeper touched the ball. Espanyol applied special security measures, installing security nets in the two goals and preventing access to the stadium with any identifying symbol of Barcelona.
In the 13th minute, the number that Joan García wears at Barça, The fans of the ‘Grada Canito’ showed several posters in which an image of a rat appeared Barcelona, one of the most tense moments of a night full of hostility.
Despite the adverse atmosphere, Joan García maintained the necessary concentration to put in a performance that was decisive in the three points that Barcelona took from Cornellà thanks to the goals in the final stretch of Dani Olmo and Robert LewandowskYo. His respect for the club that formed him, manifested in the absence of celebrating those goals, adds a human dimension to an outstanding sporting performance that confirms his status as a differential goalkeeper.
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