Barcelona and Espanyol drew 1-1 in a derby that began resembling a pre-season match, after the break for the World Cup in Qatar, and that the blue and white equalizer’s penalty goal in the 73rd minute and the referee Mateu Lahoz set fire to in the final stretch .
Barça took the lead after 7 minutes, thanks to a goal from Marcos Alonso, today Christensen’s partner at the backbone of the Barça defense, and controlled the duel at will during the first half.
But he lost steam as the minutes went by and ended the game by attacking desperately in search of the winning goal in added time, when both teams already had a man less due to the expulsions of Jordi Alba and Vini de Souza.
Mateu Lahoz sent off Jordi Alba, in four minutes, for protesting, and also Vini de Souza shortly after, also for a double warning. And the VAR corrected its decision to cast Cabrera for a direct red card for a non-existent attack on Lewandowski.
The match was rough, with constant protests, interruptions and Mateu Lahoz facing each other, and that also raised the temperature in the stands of the Camp Nou.
In that scenario of ten against ten, Barça regained control and had three clear chances to win the game in the final stretch. But Álvaro Fernández flew to neutralize a header from Christensen that slipped past the strain of the right post and avoided another Barça goal in a one-on-one with Lewandowski. Pedri also had the last one in added time, but his shot from the edge went wide.
Santiago de la Peña
