BARCELONA, Spain
La Liga leaders Barcelona continued their excellent early season form under Hansi Flick as they swept aside city rivals Espanyol to move nine points clear of Real Madrid.
Fresh from thrashing Real
in their El Clasico encounter last week, Barca's attacking play
was again sensational at times, with teenage winger Lamine Yamal once more
looking a class above his contemporaries.
He bent in a wonderful cross
with the outside of his foot which Dani Olmo turned in off the crossbar for the
12th-minute opener.
Another talented youngster,
Marc Casado, then played an equally good ball in behind the Espanyol defence 11
minutes later, with captain Raphinha timing his run perfectly to clip the ball
home.
Defensively, Barca's
incredibly high line once again made life interesting, with Espanyol having two
goals ruled out for narrow offside calls.
Full-back Omar el Hilali
squared for Jofre Carreras to sweep in, but the strike was ruled out by the
video assistant referee (VAR). Moments later, Olmo got his second with a
thumping shot from the edge of the area to put Barca 3-0 up.
Early in the second half
Alvaro Tejero's effort for the visitors was also ruled out after another close
offside call.
Captain Javi Puado, though,
swept in at the far post 18 minutes after the break to reduce the deficit.
Espanyol improved as Barcelona
shut down, but the fourth-bottom side were second best throughout as their
dismal derby record continued.
They have now gone 27 straight
derbies without a win over Barcelona and have lost six of their past seven
games in La Liga.
Flick's side have won 11 of
their 12 league games under the German and, since their sole loss at Osasuna at
the end of September, have won six in a row in all competitions, scoring 24
goals in the process.
They visit Red Star Belgrade
in the Champions League on Wednesday and will look to maintain this wonderful
run of form.
Earlier on Sunday,
third-placed Atletico
Madrid beat Las Palmas 2-0 to move to within a point of Real in
the table.
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