Barcelona nine points clear after derby delight
Ferran Torres and Lamine Yamal starred as Barcelona triumphed 4-1 over local rival Espanyol, moving nine points clear of Real Madrid in LaLiga's title race.
Ferran put the Blaugrana ahead after just nine minutes, meeting Yamal's curling corner with an open header after a careless bit of goalkeeping from Marko Dmitrovic.
The duo then replicated the feat just over 15 minutes later on the counter as Yamal's weighted throughball picked out Ferran's checked run, allowing the striker to deftly roll the ball beyond a helpless Dmitrovic.
Yamal came close to adding a third just six minutes later when his curling free-kick dipped up and over the Espanyol wall and on to the top netting, while Dmitrovic stood tall to deny a long-range piledriver from Eric Garcia.
Barcelona thought it finally had its third when Garcia met Yamal's chipped cross with a simple pass for Ferran to fire home, but the goal was chalked off for offside against Garcia.
Espanyol rallied and pulled one back in the 56th minute, helped by some pedestrian defending inside the Barcelona box, which allowed an untroubled Pol Lozano to laser a low shot into the bottom left corner.
Chances fell few and far between from there before Barcelona added gloss to the scoreline late on, with Yamal getting on the scoresheet in the 87th minute with a simple tap-in after some clumsy play from Dmitrovic.
Substitute Marcus Rashford then applied the finishing touches, collecting an exceptional pass from Frenkie de Jong before firing a precise low drive into the bottom corner on the turn.
Ferran revealed his celebration after scoring was aimed at those speaking negatively about him, despite the hard work he puts in.
"It's clear that a striker is always judged by goals. I hadn't scored in a while," he said.
"I always believe in hard work and that it pays off.
"There's always external noise around me. A lot of bad stuff and less good stuff. It p***** them off.
"Sometimes things don't work out, but it's not for lack of work."
The Blaugrana are aiming to win back-to-back league titles for the first time since doing so in 2017-2018 and 2018-2019, but Hansi Flick believes the title race is not over just yet.
"It's not done. We have to do our homework. We can't say it's already done," said the Barca boss.
"This attitude is wrong, and I won't accept it. Until it's all tied up and secure, we'll have to play our best football.
"The important thing is this team's mentality, and we'll keep at it."
