DERBY PREVIEW: RCD Espanyol v FC Barcelona

It’s derby time again! On Sunday at 9.00pm CET, FC Barcelona take the short trip up the road to the take on RCD Espanyol.

Barça will be looking to continue their rapidly improving form under Xavi Hernández, which started with a 1-0 win precisely against their local rivals in his first game in charge and climaxed with a fabulous 4-2 victory over Atlético Madrid seven days ago.

There has been a blaugrana charge up the league table, and last week they finally broke into the top four places. Now it’s time to aim even higher in a week that also features the team’s Europa League debut against Napoli on Thursday (TICKETS HERE).

The RCDE Stadium is always a big challenge. The home fans are not particularly fond of their neighbours, and the ‘parakeets’ always raise their game for derby day. But Barça have coped brilliantly with the pressure in recent years, and have yet to lose a league game at Espanyol’s fabulous 40,000 ground since it opened in 2009.

How it stands

Having moved into the Champions League places, the next target for Barça is Real Betis, who are two points ahead of them in the Liga table and who visit Levante at 4.15pm CET.

But Barça also need to bounce back above Atlético Madrid, who despite going down to ten men managed to win 4-3 in a frenetic encounter with Getafe.

Second placed Sevilla already got this weekend’s job done with a 2-0 win over Elche on Friday night, but Real Madrid were held to a 0-0 draw with Villarreal on Saturday, leaving Barça with the opportunity to reduce the gap to 13 points. And they'd still have on game in hand on the leaders...

Did you know?

FC Barcelona was founded in 1899 and what was originally called the ‘Spanish Football Society’ in 1900, making this the oldest fixture in Spanish football.

Barça have not lost any of the last 23 league derbies. Avoid defeat on Sunday and they would equal the record for Spanish derbies (Real Madrid against Atlético Madrid between 2000 and 2013).

Xavi holds the record for the most Barcelona derby appearances (36), and this was also the fixture in which he scored the most goals (6). As a player he only ever experienced two defeats to Espanyol.

If picked, Gerard Piqué will go to fifth in the list of all-time appearances for Barça behind Lionel Messi (778), Xavi Hernández (767), Andrés Iniesta (674) and Sergio Busquets (659).

Team news

Xavi will not be naming his squad until Sunday morning, but confirmed on Saturday that “Eric García is fine and he’ll be in the team but Memphis needs a little more time.”

Sergi Roberto (hamstring), Samuel Umtiti (toe), Ansu Fati (hamstring), Clement Lenglet (hamstring) and Alex Balde (ankle) are also injured, while Dani Alves is suspended following his red card against Atlético.

Xavi says

"Espanyol have changed a lot since the last game. It’s one of their best squads for a long time. They’ll be looking for revenge but we have improved a lot too.”

"We’re improving but we need to attack spaces better, not drift from our strategy and get the wingers through on goal.”

“My idea was to play Dembélé against Atlético, but I was forced to make another change.”

“I don’t think it makes any difference that the referee was a Barça fan as a kid. It might work the other way and he’ll go against us to show that it’s not true.”

“The aim is to finish in the top four. We can’t count out the chance of winning the league, but there’s a huge points difference.”

“We are going to miss Alves in the next four games. He understands positional play, scores goals, gives assists… It’s a pity.”

Last five meetings

20/11/21 (LIGA) Barça 1 (Memphis) Espanyol 0

08/07/20 (LIGA) Barça 1 (L Suárez) Espanyol 0

04/01/20 (LIGA) Espanyol 2 Barça 2 (L Suárez, A Vidal)

30/03/19 (LIGA) Barça 2 (Messi 2) Espanyol 0

08/12/18 (LIGA) Espanyol 0 Barça 4 (Messi 2, Dembélé, L Suárez)