El derbi Barceloní brought together last place Espanyol and top of the table Barcelona for a match of two teams with wildly different aspirations.
For Espanyol, the remainder of the season is entirely focused on survival. They came into the game a paltry ten points in 19 matches, leaving them five points from safety. Far from their 7th place finish last season, Espanyol handed new manager Abelardo Fernández his Espanyol coaching debut against the team he played for during 1994–2002. A tough centre-back in his playing days, he’d look to bring that intensity to the derby.
For Barcelona, a win meant holding their ground ahead of bitter rivals Real Madrid. A win against an Espanyol team with a -22 goal differential, as compared to Barcelona’s mark of +26, seemed a given, but Abelardo’s men jumped out to an early lead and then managed to grab a late equalizer in a 2-2 La Liga draw.
In this tactical analysis, we’ll look at the tactics Abelardo used to secure this massive result. An analysis of Barcelona’s tactics will show how they were finally able to crack the Espanyol blockade, scoring twice before Frankie de Jong was sent off for a tactical foul while on a yellow. Finally, both managers made impactful substitutions, so an analysis of the changes in tactics is worthwhile.
Lineups
Abelardo set out his Espanyol side in a 4-4-2. Veteran keeper Diego López got the start in goal with Dídac Vilá, Bernardo Espinosa, Naldo and Javi López. The midfield included Óscar Melendo, Marc Roca, David López and Víctor Gómez while Sergi Darder and Jonathan Calleri started up top. Matías Vargas replaced Gómez in the 62nd minute, Ander Iturraspe came on for goal-scorer David López, and Wu Lei subbed on for Melendo.
For Ernesto Valverde’s 4-3-3, Neto started in goal with Marc-André ter Stegen still sidelined. All the usual suspects started on Barcelona’s backline, as Sergi Roberto, Gerard Piqué, Clément Lenglet and Jordi Alba received the starts. In front of them were Sergio Busquets, de Jong and Ivan Rakitic. Up top were Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez and Antoine Griezmann.
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