COPA DEL REY QUARTERFINAL ROUND 1ST LEG
Espanyol Barcelona 1-0 FC Barcelona
FC Barcelona and Lionel Messi lost the first leg of the Copa del Rey Quarterfinal round following the defeat 1-0 in derby against Espanyol. This is the first defeat for the club since the Spanish Supercup loss to Real Madrid in August 2017!
This unexpected result caught off guard the large majority of players who got free betting offers for this match. Undefeated in La Liga championship, FC Barcelona will need one goal to overcome the deficit suffered in the derby. Espanyol valiantly resisted Barcelona’s assaults and found the opening within the last five minutes of the game.
Despite the territorial domination in this game, FC Barcelona were unable to score and finally conceded a decisive goal for their first defeat in the calendar year. For Espanyol, this is a major performance from the other professional club of Barcelona.
Coach FC Barcelona Valverde comments on what went wrong in this game:
“I liked my team a lot. They had a good attitude and had the game under control, but we didn’t manage to convert the many chances we had. In turn, Espanyol defended well, corrected their mistakes and took their chance.”
I congratulate them and we’ll meet again in a week’s time. I hope to see the Camp Nou like it was the day against Celta, with the fans behind the team and helping us to mount a comeback. It’ll be a nice game. The Messi penalty may have been the turning point tonight. But the team had never been threatened all game apart from a few dead ball situations.
We still have the game at Camp Nou to win and qualify”.
Midfielder Busquets admits the unbeaten had to stop one day:
“We had to lose one day. The positive part is that the second leg is at home and we’ll try to turn it around. We had a good first half and controlled the game. The second half was more competitive and Espanyol were better on the counter.”
