A perfect round of penalties was enough to see Barça take this season’s Copa Catalunya. Angel Martinez blasted Espanyol’s first spot-kick well over the crossbar and the Barça quintet of Ezquerro, Giovani dos Santos, Belletti, Marc Crosas and Motta all held their nerve to score with their kicks.
The game got off to a promising start. Barça went ahead after 9 minutes when Belletti surged forward on the right and pushed a pass between two defenders for Ezquerro to run on to, the Basque got his second goal in two Copa Catalunya games with a powerful right footer past Gorka from ten yards out. Epanyol soon had some good chances, in the 18th minute first Jorquera saved well from Coro, and as play continued the ball came back to Coro who hit the bar. A minute later Jorquera was called on to make two quick saves from Angel and Pedraza. Giovani almost made it 2-0 after 22 minutes, he latched on to a clearance from Crosas and ran clear of the defence only to see his shot clip the outside of the far post. Espanyol equalised in the 25th minute after the Barça defence allowed ex-blaugrana Moha too much time on the edge of the area, Moha split the defence with a pass to Fede running in on the left, and Fede’s cross was comfortably tapped in by Pedraza.
After the equaliser the game became more scrappy. It wasn’t until 9 minuted into the second half that there was another decent chance, Giovani running in from the right before shooting with his left to bring a good save from Gorka. Espanyol gave an indication of which of their players may feature in Saturday’s league game, when they took off Jarque, Coro and Rufete after 57 minutes. The best chance of the second half was for Espanyol’s Moha who headed wide at the far post when it seemed easier to score. Motta almost scored at the other end with a header after a fine run and cross from Giovani, but Gorka produced a good save. In the last few minutes Espanyol had three half chances and also a disallowed goal, the replay showed that Pedraza was marginally offside.
Now we can all concentrate on the real derby at Camp Nou this Saturday.FC Barcelona:
Jorquera………….7
Belletti………….5.5
Olmo……………5.5
Oleguer………….6
(Valiente, m.65)..6
Sylvinho…………6
(Thaer, m.78)….5.5
Motta……………5
Sastre………….5.5
(Busquets, m.71).6
Marc Crosas……6.5
Giovani………….6.5
Ezquerro………..6.5
Orlandi………….5.5
(Calvo, m.58)….6.5

RCD Espanyol: Iraizoz, Chica (Moisés Hurtado, m.73), Toni Lao, Jarque (Lacruz, m.57), Fede, Rufete (De Pablos, m.57), Julián, Ángel, Moha (Ito, m.73), Coro (Palanca, m.57) Marc Pedraza.