Espanyol 0 - Barcelona 2

Espanyol: Toni; Torricelli (Morales 91'), Lopo, Soldevilla, David García; Maxi, Domoraud; Velamazán (Tamudo 46'), De la Peña (Oscar 75'), Roger; Milosevic. 4-2-3-1.
Barcelona: Bonano; Reiziger, Puyol, Frank De Boer, Sorín; Xavi, Cocu; Overmars (Rochemback 46'), Saviola (Riquelme 72'), Mendieta (Motta 57'); Kluivert. 4-2-3-1.

Team changes: Espanyol: Velamazán, De la Peña for Fredson, Tamudo / Barcelona: No change.

Goals:
0-1. 39. Cocu. Glancing header wide of Toni from long Xavi free kick.
0-2. 42. Xavi. Controlled through ball from Saviola and beat keeper with low shot.

Espanyol and Barcelona met in one of the most important derby games in recent years, with the visitors running out 0-2 winners to avoid the humiliation of having their neighbours send them down in to the relegation spots for the first time in their history. Barça's stand-in president Enric Reyna took over from Joan Gaspart for the first time after he finally threw in the towel midweek, and he was in the stands to watch Antic's side in action.

The manager stuck to the same line up that had drawn against Athletic Bilbao the week before (eight of whom had played in the friendly international between Holland and Argentina midweek), with Overmars on the right wing and Mendieta on the left. Clemente had to leave Tamudo on the bench as he had been suffering from laryngitis all week, and surprisingly brought in Velamazán who had hardly featured in previous games, Maxi switching to the central midfield position.

Barcelona got off to the better start, and if Kluivert had not wasted two easy chances after Overmars and then Mendieta set him up, they could have taken an early lead. Midway through the half Xavi went down with a dislocated shoulder, but thankfully for Antic he refused to go off, and five minutes before the break it was his free kick which found Cocu's head for him to open the scoring. And then two minutes later Xavi scored himself after Kluivert and Saviola combined to set him up to place his shot wide of Toni.

Espanyol came back in the second half after a stiff half time talk from Javier Clemente, the manager also deciding it was time to introduce Tamudo to the action. The local captain brought a good save out of Bonano in a frantic first quarter of an hour, but the tempo died down and Tamudo and De la Peña both shot wide after getting into scoring positions. Antic had replaced the injured Overmars with Rochemback at the break, and he brought on Motta later in the half who should have done better when he tried to lob Toni later on. And in the last minute Kluivert rounded off a poor night for him, shooting horribly wide after Sorín and substitute Riquelme put him through.

In the end though an important victory which takes Barça up to ninth pending Sunday's games, giving them a vital boost before their Champions League game with Inter Milan next Tuesday. Clemente's side are back down in next to bottom spot, their five game unbeaten run coming to an end, but there is plenty of time left for them to bounce back. They would have loved to have won this one though.