Barça B 2-0 Espanyol B: Reserves win the 'mini-derby'

The first ever derby at the Estadi Johan Cruyff, and curiously coming just before the senior teams met at the RCDE Stadium, brought a 2-0 win for Barça B, the goals from Araujo and Collado getting 2020 off to the perfect start and maintaining the unbeaten record at the new ground.

Riqui Puig and Hiroki were especially active as Barça launched a series of attacks, but Espanyol could have taken the lead when Monchu’s penalty was brilliantly saved by Adri López.

Barça first found the net with a wonderful strike from Ronald Araujo, the Uruguayan slamming in a free kick, his third goals of the season.

Collado’s goal was the end piece of a tremendous move orchestrated by Riqui Puig, finding Akieme with a deft skimmy, who then lined up the goal with similar brilliance.

The goal took the sting out of the derby’s intensity. From there on, there was only going to be one winner. Barça B are provisionally fourth with 32 points, and are in the playoff places pending the outcome of Andorra v Olot tomorrow.

MATCH STATS

Barça B: Sergi Puig, O. Mingueza, Guillem, Riqui Puig, Álex Collado, Monchu, Abel Ruiz (Sarsanedas, min 89), Hiroki (Saverio, min 62), R. Araujo, Jandro (Reis, min 74), Akieme.
Espanyol B: Adrián, Soria, Iago, Damià (Marc, min 64), Moha, Soni (Alberto, min 74), Ferran (Pau, min 64), Tugarinov, Iván Gil, Pujol, Melamed.
Goals: 1-0, R. Araujo (min 33); 2-0, Collado (min 56).
Attendance: 4,321