Facts about the Catalan derby between Barcelona vs RCD Espanyol

DBasia.news – The Catalan derby will be presented on Monday (14/2) morning, where Barcelona will face host RCD Espanyol. The two team has a long history in battle.

Exciting matches are often presented when RCD Espanyol face FC Barcelona at the RCDE Stadium, as happened in the match in January 2020. Wu Lei’s equalizer brought Espanyol to hold Barcelona 2-2 and made Ernesto Valverde lose his position.

Many things have happened since then, such as the Corona virus pandemic, Espanyol being relegated and promoted, and Barcelona reshuffling their team from the coaches and directors. Barca are currently coached by Xavi who started his managerial career with Barca in a 1-0 win against Los Pericos at Camp Nou.

Ahead of the first Catalan derby of the 2021-2022 season, Barcelona and Espanyol had the same points, but now things are different.

The Blaugrana are currently in fourth place with 38 points, while the Blanquiazules are in 13th place with 27 points. With three defeats and one draw from their last four games, Espanyol slumped down the table after starting the season well.

Despite these facts, Espanyol will welcome this match with high motivation. Despite a 2-2 draw in the last derby at the RCDE Stadium, Espanyol haven’t celebrated a win for their fans since 2007.

As the main striker, Raul De Tomas, in an interview with LaLiga World some time ago said, “The Barcelona derby gives you very high motivation.”

There have been several draws and fierce matches since then. In fact, the victory at the RCDE Stadium in the Copa del Rey event.

Xavi’s Second Derby

The match will be Xavi’s 11th game in LaLiga as Barca coach. However, this match will be his second match against coach Vicente Moreno. After replacing Ronald Koeman last November, Xavi’s first game was against RCD Espanyol, where they won 1-0 thanks to Memphis Depay’s penalty.

Barcelona did show a positive graph after Xavi was appointed coach. Los Cules welcomed this derby with a positive result: a 4-2 win over defending champions, Atletico Madrid.

Xavi’s record as a coach in 10 matches in LaLiga is six wins, three draws and one defeat. Barca won 21 points out of 30 available points.

This series of results brought the Blaugrana back to the competition in the top flight. In fact, if Xavi was the coach from the start of the season, only Real Madrid would have earned more points than the Blaugrana.

However, Barca can’t be careless, considering that Atletico and Villarreal can still catch up to compete for positions in the top four. Barcelona need to keep on picking up points, but early Monday they will arrive at the stadium where they will have to fight as hard as they can to win.