Barcelona beat Espanyol on penalties to win Supercopa

Barcelona beat Espanyol in penalties after a goalless 90 minutes

Barcelona squared off against Espanyol in the Supercopa de Catalunya on Wednesday. The fixture was a good opportunity for Barcelona to rotate considering the fact that it was a semi-friendly.

FIRST HALF

The team started excellently with Paco Alcácer missing an easy 1-on-1 against Pau López within a minute of the game. However, Espanyol had the best chance of the opening ten minutes with Cillessen being forced to make a double-save.

Barcelona dominated possession but were susceptible to the counter-attack numerous times. If it wasn’t for Cillessen, the scoreline could have looked much different.

Denis Suárez and Dembélé had some good runs at the opposition defense but the final product was missing.

SECOND HALF

The second half followed the theme of the first, with Barcelona having plenty of time on the ball. However, Barcelona were still conceding plenty of chances down their right wing, behind Palencia.

Cillessen was tested on several occasions by Espanyol as Marc Roca and Piatti had a shot each on target, with Piatti’s attempt hitting the cross-bar. Even A. López, who came on as a substitute, pushed the keeper to make a save.

Despite several chances, the deadlock remained and as the referee blew his whistle, the game went straight to penalties.

PENALTIES

Alcácer stepped up first and scored with a powerful strike into the top corner. The follow up from Darder was skied.

Palencia stepped up to take Barcelona’s second with a hard strike past the keeper. Javi López had his strike and put it past the keeper as well.

Mina scored the third and did his little dance. Hermoso took the follow-up with a cheeky finish.

Abel Ruiz was the fourth for Barcelona and did what he had to. Jurado took Espanyol’s strike but Cillessen made the save to give the Blaugrana their first trophy of the season.

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Barcelona: Cillessen; Palencia, Mina, Cuenca (Costas), Digne (Miranda); Aleñá (Ruiz), Gomes (Hongla), Suárez (Rivera); Vidal (McGuane), Alcácer, Dembélé (Pérez)

Goals: NA

Espanyol: Pau López; Javi López, Naldo, Hermoso, Dídac (Adrià); Marc Roca, Granero (Ortega), Darder; Melendo (A. López), Jurado, Piatti (Puado)

Goals: NA

Source: barcablaugranes.com