A superb strike from the Lamine Yamal helped Crown Barcelona La Liga Champions with a 2-0 victory among Local Rivals Espanyol on Thursday, with the victory guaranteeing that Real Madrid cannot catch them at the top of the table. Yamal’s effort and Fermin Lopez’s goal brought the side of Hansi Flick to seven points away from Los Blancos with two games to play to win the 28th title of Barcelona and fill a superb domestic triplet. Only the Champions League escaped a young fascinating Barça team this season because they won the League for the second time in six years, on the Espanyol field again as in 2023.
At the time, the celebration of Barça players was driven out of the field by angry house supporters, but this time, Espanyol lit the sprinklers to dip the jubilant visitors, who quickly headed down the tunnel.
Yamal opened the score after 53 minutes of a tense derby confrontation with a brilliant curling effort, before Lopez adds another in the 95th minute to ensure victory.
“It’s time to celebrate,” said Barça Flick coach, who said he would demand even more from his team next season.
“It is in our DNA (to want to learn), it’s normal, and that’s what I want from players, that they always try to improve and that they are hungry, it’s crucial.”
Outside the stadium before the match, several Espanyol fans were hit by a car that led to a large crowd, although none was seriously injured and the police said it seemed to be an accident.
Barcelona was a few seconds to seal their title triumph on Wednesday, but Real Madrid seized a winner of the 95th minute against Mallorca to delay the inevitable.
The Flick team started slowly in Cornella, with Espanyol, 16th, seeming dangerous on the counterattack and eager to guarantee their survival at the end.
Wojciech Szczesny made a nice backup to refuse Javi Puado who pierced the goal in the best chance of Espanyol of the opening period.
Barça dominated the ball but failed to create clear opportunities themselves in the first half.
Yamal BRISE
The Catalan giants have often stunned the teams this season, approaching a century of liga goals, but with the title on the line and a hostile crowd against them, they needed something special to unravel.
This came from the 17-year-old wing wizard Yamal, who zipped inside the right flank and unleashed a rocket in the upper corner of the outside of the box, in a replica of his goal for Spain against France in the Euro 2024 semi-finals.
It was the eighth strike of the teenage liga of the season, but with goals in the two games against his real rivals and also during the visit to face Atletico Madrid, he has a penchant for the great occasion.
“I don’t know what to say about Lamine, he has scored an incredible goal, he had an incredible season,” said Lopez.
The superb display of Barça in Sunday Clasico, in which they beat their rivals 4-3 in an exciting battle, actually won the title to them.
However, they still had to travel the line against their neighbors, and this became easier when Leandro Cabrera was sent for a elbow in Yamal stomach.
Even if they had a less player, Espanyol strongly put pressure on Barcelona until Lopez passed through Joan Garcia to end the resistance of the hosts.
Espanyol fans pierced Barcelona players with bottles while celebrating the goal, but as the youngest team in the League finished a title which was unlikely after the arrival of Kylian Mbappe in the champions of last year, they were there.
“On the ground, it was clear that we could not celebrate there … two years ago (there were problems),” Flick told journalists.
“This is also respect for the fans here, (therefore) of course we celebrated in the locker room, fantastic, the players could do that, really good.
“Tomorrow, I will stay a little in the background and I will appreciate it too. When I see that people are happy and smiling, I will appreciate it.”
(With the exception of the title, this story has not been published by NDTV staff and is published from a unionized flow.)
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