Barcelona cruise past Espanyol, Atleti secures win over Las Palma

Hansi Flick and his Barcelona side made light work of their visitors Espanyol in the derby on Sunday to show dominance and also reinforce their title challenge. Fresh from a 4-0 win in the Clasico last weekend, Barcelona were cruising with five wins in five games and they showed why they are such red hot with twelve minutes in.

Lamine Yamal produced a brilliant pass which was finished by Dani Olmo while Raphinha doubled the lead few minutes later. By the half hour mark Barcelona had made it 3-0 and Dani Olmo had secured his brace after he found the net moments after Espanyol’s 27th minute strike was disallowed by the VAR.

The visitors had one more goal denied before Puado got a consolation for them in the 63rd minute as Barcelona extended their points gap to nine ahead of Real Madrid whose weekend game was postponed due to the flood disaster in Valencia.

Capital club Atletico Madrid maintained their unbeaten run against Las Palmas at home and stretched it further to 21 matches unbeaten after a 2-0 win at the Metropolitano stadium on Sunday.

Diego Someone’s side may have won their last match, a Copa Del Rey fixture to lower league side Vic during the week, but their La Liga form was disappointing having won just once in their last four.

The visitors went toe to toe with the home side as Jan Oblak was forced to a save by Fabio Silva after 20 minutes although Atleti found their dominance and continued to look for ways to pounce on their visitors.

Diego Someone’s son Giuliano Simeone found the back of the net with a low drive that beat Jasper Cillessen in goal with eight minutes left before the break. The second goal didn’t come until six minutes before the time when Alex Sorloth sealed the win and prepared Diego Someone’s side for their UCL clash against PSG in Paris on Wednesday while they traveled to Mallorca next weekend in the league.