Barcelona - Espanyol: el derbi de derbis

By: Isaiah | June 8th, 2007

Time: Saturday 3pm EST
Place: Camp Nou, Barcelona

This is it, folks. The derby of derbies. Espanyol crosses town tomorrow for their annual visit to the Camp Nou and it couldn’t be at a more important time as it’s down to the wire for La Liga. Espanyol might be looking for revenge after losing to Barcelona earlier this week in the Copa Catalunya, but really they don’t need more reason to attempt to beat Barca. Espanyol haven’t won in the Camp Nou for 26 years (can someone confirm that? I read it somewhere, but I can’t find where anymore) and so they’ll want to break that streak about right now.

The big boys will be back on the field for both teams as they return from international duty where they all did pretty darn well. Messi scored twice in beating Algeria in a friendly with Argentina, Xavi scored in a real game for Spain, and Iniesta was the provider for 2 goals over 2 games for La Furia Roja, as they’re known.

And over in Zaragoza, Real Madrid will be in what I believe will be a dogfight that could easily turn out any of the three possible ways. It’s too hard to call, but I think a draw or Madrid win is more likely. Good players play the big games best and Real Madrid certainly has some gooduns. And the same should be said for Barcelona as well, who may or may not have the services of one Ronaldinho.

There’s talk in the Spanish press of Ronnie getting to play against Espanyol and then being suspended for the ‘Nastic away game, but it’s very unclear how possible that is. Rijkaard has included him in the provisional lineup released today, which signals that only that anything is possible at this point. I would love to see Ronnie play, but that seems a little unfair, in the end. I don’t know La Liga’s rules or the precedence on this subject well enough to put odds on what will happen, but certainly Paris Hilton has shown that money can buy basically anything, so I wouldn’t put it past the RFEF to agree to something or other “for the good of the game” or some such malarkey. I mean, great for us if Ronnie plays, but even better if he hadn’t lashed out and received a red in the first place…

[UPDATE: Ronaldinho's suspension has been officially upheld and he'll miss the game tomorrow.]

And, as ever, the hot debate about head-to-head vs goal differential rages on…