{"id":2379,"date":"2026-04-12T05:29:47","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T05:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/2379\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T05:29:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T05:29:47","slug":"fc-barcelona-4-1-espanyol-closing-in-on-the-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/2379\/","title":{"rendered":"FC Barcelona 4-1 Espanyol: Closing in on the title"},"content":{"rendered":"

FC Barcelona have moved even closer to the Liga title after defeating Espanyol 4-1 on Saturday, which, coupled with Real Madrid\u2019s draw with Girona the day before, means they are now an immense nine points clear<\/a> at the top of the Liga table.<\/p>\n

The final score doesn\u2019t reflect how tight the situation actually was. Although a Ferran Torres brace left Bar\u00e7a nicely set up at the break, Espanyol pulled a goal back and were threatening to nick a second before two late blaugrana goals finally sorted things out.<\/p>\n

Ferran double<\/p>\n

In La Liga things are looking extraordinarily sweet. In the Champions League not so much. That\u2019s a matter that requires serious attention at the Metropolitano on Tuesday<\/a>, but any fears that Bar\u00e7a might be taking this one lightly were forgotten as soon as the starting XI was announced.<\/p>\n

Curiously, Ronald Araujo was the only non-Spaniard, but Hansi Flick\u2019s rotations were fairly minimal.<\/p>\n

And once the game began, it quickly became clear that there were no thoughts of reserving energy for Tuesday. Espanyol were under threat from the off and after just nine minutes were already trailing after Ferran Torres rose to meet a Lamine Yamal corner at the far post and headed Bar\u00e7a into an early lead.<\/p>\n

On 25 minutes the same two were at it again. A splendid assist from Lamine on the day of his 100th Liga appearance, and Torres tucked the ball home with the most subtle of finishes.<\/p>\n

Moments of doubt<\/p>\n

The \u2018shark\u2019 hadn\u2019t scored since netting against Elche in January. Today he had two, and Bar\u00e7a were cruising it against an Espanyol side that did hit the bar at one point but otherwise barely threatened.<\/p>\n

Torres could have completed a hat-trick had the offside flag not gone up in the second half. Had that goal counted, it would have been game over. Instead, mere moments later, the visitors were suddenly back in the game.<\/p>\n

Pol Lozano was allowed far too much space to collect a loose ball and rifle it past Joan Garc\u00eda. 2-1.<\/p>\n

Bar\u00e7a were still on top, and Marcus Rashford let an especially promising chance slip, but the Parakeets were creating some bother too. Too much bother. Flick would surely have liked to take Lamine Yamal off for some rest, but he was needed. This game was anything but settled.<\/p>\n

Late glee<\/p>\n

So who better than Lamine himself to settle it? It was a strange goal. Marko Dmitrovic blocked his run, only for the ball to rebound off the teenager\u2019s body and leave him with a free run to shepherd the ball into an empty net.<\/p>\n

Moments earlier, we\u2019d been treated to the refreshing sight of Frenkie de Jong coming on for the first time since recovering from injury, and it wasn\u2019t long before we were given a reminder of what we\u2019ve been missing.<\/p>\n

The Dutchman collected a Lamine pass and stood for what seemed like an age plotting what to do next. In the end, the coolest little chip and Rashford was able to make up for his earlier error with a fantastic finish.<\/p>\n

Now Bar\u00e7a could relax. 4-1 winners. That\u2019s now thirty consecutive league derbies without defeat. The Liga title is beckoning. But before that there\u2019s Atl\u00e9tico Madrid.<\/p>\n

“Si se puede” chanted Spotify Camp Nou after the final whistle. “We can do it.”<\/p>\n

We certainly can!<\/p>\n

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Chevron SVG pointing right\n <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FC Barcelona have moved even closer to the Liga title after defeating Espanyol 4-1 on Saturday, which, coupled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,483],"class_list":{"0":"post-2379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-barcelona","8":"tag-barcelona","9":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}