It will be the first time in fourteen years that Barça visits the blue and white arena without Gerard Piqué
The former Blaugrana, since he arrived at the Camp Nou in the 08-09 season, has not lost a single derby at home
The last time Gerard Piqué played against Espanyol, as if he had also planned it, the game did not finish. He lost very few minutes, yes. And it is that the Barça center-back saw the second yellow card in the 90th minute (the first was in the 74th minute) after a risqué clash with Melamed, who was also sent off for a double warning. Barça trailed 2-1, but Luuk de Jong, in the 96th minute, equalized for the blaugrana. That was Piqué’s last experience in a match that motivated him in a special way..
Curiously, in his last game with Barça he also ended up seeing the red card. It was in Pamplona against Osasuna. However, his controversies with Espanyol, whose fans always dedicated offensive chants to him, some of them absolutely disrespectful, fueled a feud season after season that came to an end on February 13, 2022. At least on the grass.
The tortuous relationship between the parakeet club and the footballer started, dressed in the Barça shirt, from the first day he returned to the Camp Nou from Manchester United, in 2008-2009. In fact, from then until he hung up his boots, he never missed a single one of the derbies played in enemy territory. Not only that, Piqué, wearing the blaugrana shirt, played the 90 minutes in all the league duels against the blue and whites at homeso his absence is still notable in a game, Sunday, in which Espanyol plays a large part of its options to continue in the First Division.
A very positive balance
From his first season at Barça and until last season, he only stopped playing the derby in the rival field in 20-21, although the central defender had nothing to do with it because that year Espanyol played in the Second Division. The truth is that Gerard Piqué’s numbers in his confrontations with the parakeet team greatly favor him: 30 games between the League (26) and the Cup (4), with a record of 22 wins, six draws and only two losses. In addition, he scored six goals. Cornellà-El Prat breathes easy.