Espanyol goalkeeper Pau Lopez welcomed the jeers from Barcelona fans after his pre-match comments. ‘It’s fun…it motivates me.’
Lopez had said prior to the Catalan derby that he didn’t care who won La Liga, as long as it was a Madrid team, though Barca’s 5-0 thrashing of Los Periquitos means they are one of only two teams who can still win the title, Real Madrid the other.
“It’s fun, it’s fine. I like people to pressure me. It motivates me,” Lopez said, AS reports, having been greeted with whistles every time he touched the ball at Camp Nou.
“It’s funny to say I stirred the game. I was asked and I said I didn’t want Barca to win the League. I didn’t stir the game. It’s normal that I don’t want our rival to win things.”
Lopez was at fault for one of Barca’s goals, when he let a loose ball slip from his grasp, but was philosophical about it, and altercations with Luis Suarez and Neymar, but admitted disappointment at the heavy defeat.
“It’s not positive. The second goal came too soon and that decided the outcome of the game. The ball escaped me. If you fail, you fail,” he added.
“It’s a derby, it’s normal there are rows. What happens in the game stays there. Everything is forgotten.
“We’re safe, which is what we wanted. The result wasn’t the best. On one hand we’re happy, but we’re angry for the heavy defeat. We were fine in the first half. Barca didn’t know what to do. We had chances. The second goal killed us. Individual errors cost goals, including mine.”
