Three talking points from Barcelona’s win in the Catalan Derby

Barcelona won the Catalan Derby 4- over Espanyol and clinched their 27th league title in the process.

The win over Espanyol was more straightforward than the score indicates as Barcelona, at one point, were winning 4-0. Two second-half goals from the home team softened the final scoreline but it was a dominating performance from the visitors.

With that being said, here are three talking points from Barcelona’s win.

Barcelona scored early and often, leaving no doubts

One of the sticking points against this Barcelona team is once they score and go ahead, they create a number of chances to increase their lead only to blow those opportunities and scramble to finish out the game.

Against Espanyol, that wasn’t the case.

Robert Lewandowski scored 11 minutes into the game and Alejandro Balde double the lead nine minutes later. Five minutes before the end of the first half, Lewandowski scored his second.

Jules Kounde got his first goal, and Barcelona’s fourth, early in the second half.

Again, the scoreline flattered Espanyol as Barcelona could have scored one or two more had their decision making in the final third been better.

Xavi Hernandez made a number of substitutes that allowed Espanyol to get back in the game but it was nowhere near enough to put the final result in doubt. In fact, Espanyol’s second was scored in the final moments of stoppage time.

Given everything at stake, for both sides, only Barcelona came to play. They wanted to win the title here and now and did so.

Lewandowski looked as good as he has in a long time

Lewandowski’s brace saw his LaLiga goal tally increase to 21, putting him four goals ahead of Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema in the race for the Pichichi.

A striker, rightly or wrongly, is ultimately judged by their goals and it has to be a relief for Lewandowski to score twice in the Catalan Derby considering his struggle recently. With his brace, he’s now scored four goal in the last four games.

What was even more encouraging was his finishes were a striker’s finish. During his struggles, those were chances he would miss or mishit. With the league title now sealed, he’s likely to keep playing in an effort to ensure he wins Spain’s scoring title.

The scenes after the game were deplorable

No one likes to lose. No one likes to lose a derby. No one likes to see your bitter rival clinch a league title in your home stadium while your team is likely getting relegated.

However, it doesn’t give fans carte blanche to do whatever they want and storm the pitch to try to get into a physical altercation with the players.

The schedule fell the way it did and it’s not as if Barcelona planned to win the league at Espanyol’s home stadium. But it happened and it’s also not Barcelona’s fault that Espanyol are fighting relegation.

The Espanyol manager, Luis Garcia, did offer apologies in the aftermath.

“We should always condemn violence, in all aspects of life,” García said. “Everything was done to try to keep this from happening but it wasn’t possible.”

The attempts to try to justify is also misguided at best.

Almost a decade ago, Atletico Madrid went into the Camp Nou needing a win over Barcelona if they wanted to win LaLiga. They pulled out a win and Barcelona got a goal wrongly called off because of offside.

Atletico Madrid celebrated at the Camp Nou and none of the supporters stormed on to the pitch to try to get them to leave. Some of then even applauded them because of their achievement.

The scenes at the end never should have happened with LaLiga needing to come down swiftly with a punishment.

Despite what happened at the end, it should not cloud what Barcelona were able to achieve. This is their first league title in nearly four years. It’s their first major trophy in the post-Messi era and one they fully deserve.