Barcelona beat Espanyol 3-1 in derby

Dani Olmo scores first-half brace as they extend La Liga lead

BARCELONA:

LaLiga leaders Barcelona beat Espanyol 3-1 in the Catalan derby on Sunday thanks to a first-half double from Dani Olmo and a goal from Raphinha to extend their unbeaten run over their local rivals to 27 games.

The victory moved Barcelona nine points clear of Real Madrid, who did not play at Valencia this weekend after their match was postponed due to the devastating floods in the region. Espanyol are 17th, a point above the relegation zone.

Barcelona, who thrashed Real Madrid 4-0 last weekend, could have kept another clean sheet but Javi Puado scored for Espanyol, who were unlucky to have two goals chalked off by VAR for marginal offsides.

"We're going little by little, it's very important to keep winning. We've come off a good week.

Espanyol weren't going to come here and give us anything but we got the three points, so it's mission accomplished," Olmo said.

"We're a side that have a lot of goals, up top and from players in midfield. We decided to play directly and we create a lot of chances in every game."

Barcelona dominated possession from the outset and nearly scored an early goal with a neat passing move but Olmo's header from the centre of the box went over to give Espanyol a reprieve.

Moments later 17-year-old Lamine Yamal played him through with a sumptuous pass using the outside of his left boot and Olmo fired it home first time to open the scoring.

Barca's second goal came from another sublime assist from near the centre circle when Marc Casado's lob over the defence found Raphinha who chipped his shot over the onrushing keeper to make it 2-0.