Espanyol’s supporters bounced on their seats, waiting for the final signal and a derby victory, but there was the cross from Adama Traoré and the so admired head of ‘Luuk’. De Jong came on a minute before the end and scored his fourth competition goal.
After the city derby against FC Barcelona, Tonny Vilhena at least knows what a great club he seems to have ended up with. It’s been a great week for Vilhena. The former Feyenoord, who came over from the Russian Krasnodar, was allowed to make his first three minutes against Real Betis shortly after his arrival on January 21. His basic debut followed last week on a visit to Athletic Bilbao and after three minutes he scored his first goal. After 75 minutes, coach Vicente Moreno allowed him to start again against Barcelona. In a great atmosphere, he participated for an hour. In Cornella de Llobregat, he felt there is no sympathy for a resurrection of Barça with Xavi at the helm. They had to be sent home with their tails between their legs. And it happened just seconds after…
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Tony Vilhena.
Ⓒ ANP/HH
Barca, which Memphis hopes to return to next week, could not have started the derby better. Within a minute and a half, Espanyol goalkeeper Diego Lopez found himself on the ground, with Pedri’s 0-1 behind him in the net. Adama Traoré showed immediate steam, then lost the ball, but Xavi’s team immediately won it back on the edge of the penalty area. A way that we know from the previously lost house style. Frenkie de Jong played on Jordi Alba, who gave the lead towards the second post and final station Pedri.
Seven minutes before half time, Traoré shot hard at goalkeeper Diego Lopez, in a first half without many highlights. Except for Sergi Darder’s 1-1 two minutes later. He brought Espanyol’s supporters into ecstasy when he curled the equalizer into the far corner from the left of the penalty area before half-time. For example, Traoré’s miss got an extra sour taste just before, but he makes it immediately clear in his first two duels why he was made. The right winger, who is on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers, looks a little polished, but with his speed and enormous strength, he often threatens.
Frankie de Jong.
Ⓒ ANP/HH
Ten minutes after the break, Barcelona seemed to take the lead via Gavi, but that goal was canceled by the VAR, because Frenkie de Jong turned out to be offside. At first glance, that was not so obvious. Jordi Alba nearly knocked his teammate Pedri over with a dropout and the ball that jumped off the midfielder ended up back at Gavi via the centimeters of De Jong standing offside. Shortly afterwards, Tonny Vilhena was shown a yellow card for a tackle on Sergio Busquets and Vilhena was sent off on the hour. Frenkie de Jong followed him to the sidelines on behalf of Barcelona in the same minute.
Vilhena was allowed to jump off the bench four minutes later, when Raúl de Tomás scored the 2-1 eye to eye with Barça goalkeeper Marc-André Ter Stegen. What did Xavi’s team do next? Painfully little, for a club with the stature of Barcelona. Gerard Piqué was even sent off with a red card in injury time to the amusement of the Espanyol supporters. Fortunately for the club, Luuk de Jong saved a point. There still appears to be a long way to go, despite a brilliant win over Atlético Madrid a week earlier (4-2). It turned out to be the first sign of life, but the world has not suddenly changed completely.