Barcelona settled for a draw against Espanyol in an intriguing Catalan Derby where Luis Suarez and Arturo Vidal both scored for the visitors while David Lopez and Wu Lei did the job for the hosts.
However, Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi almost pulled off stunning assists after his beautiful and trademark mazy runs to find Luis Suarez who missed the chance to score. The Blaugrana side was leading when Lionel Messi sparked this run.
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Lionel Messi beat around four Espanyol defenders during his run towards hosts’ box and then beat the fifth one to find their number 9.
Luis Suarez was in a one-on-one situation but he couldn’t find the back of the net as his shot was saved by the gloveman.
However, in the end, it wasn’t a good outing for Ernesto Valverde and his Barcelona side as they conceded a late equalizer on the 88th-minute mark when Wu Lei scored for the home side. Evidently, it sparked a sheer cheer amongst the Espanyol fans.
Frankie De Jong’s red card was a highlight moment of the match and his exit gave a good boost for Espanyol to take advantage and make things happen.
Barcelona manager insisted the red card incident derailed his side.
De Jong’s red card did us damage,” Valverdeadmitted to the press.
“We had three chances to kill the game off and we ended up drawing from one chance.
“We more or less controlled the match and we were fine after coming back [from a goal down], with this intention of continuing to score.
“They went forward and we were left with more space.
“It was in our favor and it removed us a bit, the opponent is always going to push at the end.
“They’re going to have a [chance], they had that and they converted it.”
While, on the other hand, Real Madrid defeated Getafe and due to their pivotal win, both the Spanish giants are level on with 40 points each making it an intriguing title race. Raphael Varane scored a brace for the Los Blancos while Luka Modric also got a goal in their win at Coliseum Alfonso Pérez stadium.
