Barcelona outclassed city rivals Espanyol 2-0 on Sunday to move to the brink of a third consecutive La Liga title.
A mazy run and shot from Andres Iniesta in the 29th minute and a Gerard Pique header soon after the restart were just rewards for another controlled and patient display from Pep Guardiola’s side.
Second-placed Real Madrid’s 6-2 thrashing of Sevilla on Saturday had denied Barca the chance to win the championship in front of their own fans, but they showed few signs of nerves as they calmly dispatched their neighbors.
Photo: EPA
The Champions League finalists climbed to 91 points and restored their eight-point lead with three games left, only needing a draw at Levante on Wednesday to wrap up the title, unless Real slip up at home to Getafe on Tuesday.
“For the first time the league is very close, it’s in our own hands and we need to achieve it against Levante,” Guardiola told reporters.
“Madrid will win [on Tuesday]. I want to win the title as soon as possible. I’m not going to rest anyone because we haven’t won anything yet. The only team to have won something is Real Madrid [the Copa de Rey],” Guardiola said.
Photo: AFP
Barca seemed to be playing well within themselves against a team who have often caused them problems, but after Iniesta slalomed into the area to score, Europa League-chasing Espanyol were up against it.
Pique nodded in at the near post from a corner in the 48th minute and despite the odd scare, Barca cruised to the final whistle.
One of the biggest cheers of the day from the home fans was for Eric Abidal when the French fullback came on for the last 20 minutes as he continued his recovery from surgery on a liver tumor.
Earlier, Villarreal were held to a dull 0-0 draw at Real Mallorca which damaged their chances of securing automatic qualification for next season’s Champions League.
At the foot of the standings, Osasuna came from behind to beat Real Zaragoza 3-1 and drag themselves out of the bottom three and up to 14th on 41 points, two ahead of their hosts.
Angel Lafita capitalized on an error to give Zaragoza the lead in the first half, but the visitors battled back after the break with goals from Javier Camunas, Sergio Fernandez and Kike Sola.
Zaragoza are kept out of the relegation places by their superior head-to-head record with 18th-placed Deportivo La Coruna.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier