Barcelona travel to city rivals Espanyol tomorrow evening in another important chapter in Xavi Hernandez’s reign. The blaugrana beat Atletico Madrid 4-2 at Camp Nou last weekend to leapfrog them into fourth place. They’ll be keen to consolidate their place in the top four and apply pressure on Real Betis.
Barcelona are currently two points clear of Atletico and two behind Betis, helped by the latter’s 2-0 home defeat to Villarreal last weekend. The Andalusians take on Levante tomorrow afternoon, so Barcelona could go third if Betis lose and they win.
But it won’t be easy. The form table points to Barcelona as the clear favourites heading into this one, but everything goes out the window in a derby. Espanyol are currently 13th in the league table having lost three of their last five, but Barcelona only beat them 1-0 when the two sides met at Camp Nou in the reverse fixture. That game was Xavi’s first in charge at the club.
“We’ll see an Espanyol similar to the one at Camp Nou,” Xavi said pre-match in comments carried by Mundo Deportivo. “But we’ve improved, we have new players, we’re in a good moment. And we want to consolidate this moment. Tomorrow will be a litmus test against an intense rival with a crowd that will drive them on. They’ll be out for footballing revenge.
“The day against Atletico saw a very good Barcelona. We’re fourth and we want to keep climbing, but we have to keep working with humility. We’re fine but we can’t quite puff our chests out. We have to keep working. The team needs two or three consecutive positive results. But we’re working very well and we have had the whole week to prepare for the match. The sensations are good.”
