A present which keeps Barça alive in La Liga

A present which keeps Barça alive in La Liga

Lluís Mascaró

Director de Información Deportiva de Prensa Ibérica

Luis Suárez abrió el marcador tras un gran regalo de Jurado
Luis Suárez abrió el marcador tras un gran regalo de Jurado | sport

Espanyol were dreaming of taking La Liga away from Barcelona. And in the end the gave them a gift which kept their title hopes alive. A serious, serious error from Jurado allowed Luis Suarez to open the scoring when Barça were struggling to make the breaktrhough/ 

Luis Enrique's side had everything on the line at Cornella, but they were not at the level of champions. Lacking ideas in attack, kept quiet by Espanyol's good defence and with a trident unable to come up with much magic. Until Suarez, who had gone five games without scoring, took advantage of Jurado's awful pass, ending his dry streak and keeping Barça in the battle for La Liga with Real Madrid.

It was a Catalan derby of more intensity and emotion than good play. Barça, under pressure due to Real Madrid's tricky win over Valencia, were obliged to get the three points. Any other result would have been goodbye to the league. But they didn't produce the football needed to get the three points in the first half. 

WITHOUT INIESTA, WITH NEYMAR

The absence of Andres Iniesta was once again obvious. And the return of Neymar, even though he created moments of uncertainty, was not enough. Only a present from Espanyol helped avoid disaster. It was the opposite of the 'Tamudazo' from 10 years ago. 

Raul Tamudo took the league away from Barça at Camp Nou with a 90th minute goal. On Saturday, Jurado did not give them the title, but he allowed them to keep dreaming of it. Which is good enough having seen the performance produced by Barcelona at their city rival's home stadium.