Barcelona crowned La Liga champions after victory over 10-man Espanyol

The day the league title race began, Wojciech Szczesny was sitting on the beach in Marbella, lighting up a cigarette, enjoying his retirement; the day it ended nine months on, he was on the pitch at the RCDE Stadium, 1,000km north, celebrating alongside the friends old and new with whom he had just become a champion again. At 35, the Polish goalkeeper had been convinced to come out of retirement for one last job, and what a job it was, a season he hadn’t even expected to play ending with a league and cup double after a 2-0 win at rivals Espanyol.

He was joined at Barcelona by a stellar cast, a whole new generation that includes a kid 17 years and three months his junior – a teenager at the other end of a career that might yet be one of the best there has ever been.

Szczesny had made two vital first-half saves when Barcelona were exposed against Espanyol, their city rivals, on a night when they knew a win would secure the title and anything less would leave them having to fight on, maybe even in a position where it could slip from them. And then, as the second half began, Lamine Yamal, who could be the best player in the world already, ensured it would not when he delivered a moment of class and quality that no one else could. Which is just what he does, with startling regularity and remarkable ease.

He delivered the victory, too. The run and the shot he produced on 53 minutes was so good, so like Lamine, so his now, the ball bent into the top corner of the net to provide the perfect conclusion to an almost perfect campaign. Barcelona had not had their best night but were set on course for a victory over Espanyol that crowned them champions, Fermín López adding the second in the 95th minute. Another grand moment had belonged to the boy with braces on his teeth, a teenager taking the lead.

When Barcelona were knocked out of Europe, Lamine had vowed he would never give up until they won the Champions League. He also said he had told his mum that opportunity would come every year. For now, they had to win the league to go with the Copa del Rey, expectations wildly exceeded. So in the clásico, he curled in the goal that pulled them level again, setting them up for a 4-3 win that left them one victory from the title. And now, four days later, he set them up for that too. With a little help from the whole gang, down to the latest arrival, the teammate who is older than his dad.

If Barcelona hadn’t won here there would still have been two more chances to take the title, but there could be nothing better than doing it first time and in a derby too. Espanyol’s coach, Manolo González, insisted that all he cared about was the victory that would guarantee his team’s survival, but for the fans it was different. Yes, they wanted to avoid relegation, but if they could put one over their rivals, keep the bus at the depot, then so much the better.

View image in fullscreen Férmin López slots in Barcelona’s second goal to confirm the title. Photograph: Joan Monfort/AP

They definitely didn’t want to go through the experience of two years ago, and nor did anyone else: in May 2023, when Barcelona won the league here, hundreds of fans ran on to the pitch and chased the visitors’ players down the tunnel. Espanyol couldn’t avoid seeing their rivals win at their home, but at the end of this meeting, Barça headed down the tunnel to celebrate instead. They had earned it.

Espanyol had started well, the first chance coming their way when Urko González dashed clean through and put the ball wide. Yet in those early minutes attention had been drawn instead to reports of an incident outside in which a white car had apparently run over fans that had been surrounding it, accelerating through a crowd. There had been panic, ambulances were at the scene. Videos circulated and, at one point, the Espanyol fans behind Joan García’s goal had called for the game to be stopped, shouting that people had been hurt or worse.

The referee came over then, an announcement was made over the PA saying that the situation was under control, and the game continued, but some fans in the first rows vacated their seats. Catalan police said that there had been no serious injuries.

Back on the pitch, the ball was Barcelona’s – with 80% possession in the first half – but it was slow and little really came from it. Espanyol were happy to wait for the chance to run, a plan that was justified by the fact that, when they did, they found their way into the space beyond the Barcelona back four. Szczesny made his second decisive save, this time from Javi Puado as he was set free after a quarter of an hour. He had to be out fast to deny him again 10 minutes later as he chased Unai Expósito’s ball.

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When Pedri laid into the path of Lamine Yamal and the 17-year-old opened up his body, plenty imagined the ball ending in the top corner but this time it bent over. It wouldn’t the next time. Just before the break, Robert Lewandowski fired wide. And then soon after, when Lamine had another chance, he again stepped inside from the right, accelerated past two men and reproduced what is becoming a copyright of his, an outrageous shot flying in a perfect arc into the net right by the far post.

Everyone knew what he was going to do, but knowing it and stopping it are very different things, as so many defenders and goalkeepers have found and many more surely will. Standing there before the few visiting supporters high in the corner, Lamine Yamal opened his arms wide. He had put Barcelona within touching distance.

A superb stop by Szczesny from Roberto Fernández kept them there, as did the control they exercised through midfield where Pedri and Frenkie De Jong dominated. They were aided by a red card for Leandro Cabrera, sent off when he hit out at Lamine Yamal.

The teenager was determined to keep them there, a lesson learnt perhaps from the defeat to Inter. When he escaped on 92 minutes, he carried to the corner instead of shooting. But the next time he got it, he slipped in a clever pass and Férmin López did go for goal, a clean, crips shot settling in the net. It was over. The derby was won and the title was theirs: the kid, the old man and the whole brilliant gang of them.

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