Xavi Hernandez made a winning start as Barcelona coach on Saturday as a dubious Memphis Depay penalty was enough to defeat local rivals Espanyol 1-0 in La Liga.
Depay’s strike at the start of the second half ensured Xavi’s homecoming at Camp Nou ended in victory, but a nervy one, that will have left him under no illusions about the difficulty of the task ahead.
Raul de Tomas twice struck the post late on as Espanyol spurned a flurry of late chances that really should have seen them take a draw from a game Barca dominated for an hour and then almost let slip from their grasp.
Results, though, must come quickly and this one lift Xavi’s team from ninth in the table to sixth, six points behind fourth-placed Atletico Madrid, who earlier needed a late Felipe header to win 1-0 at home to Osasuna. Sevilla, in third, were held to a 2-2 draw by Alaves.
There was also an undeniable uplift in mood at Camp Nou, with the 74,418 attendances almost double the 37,278 that watched Barca draw here against Alaves two weeks ago.
At his unveiling last week, Xavi had emphasized the need for ‘rules’ and even before kick-off, there were signs of a shift. The players rolled into Camp Nou under a plume of red smoke, with the squad arriving all together on the team bus.
Barcelona’s XI boasted eight La Masia graduates, including Ilias Akhomach, who was handed his debut. Ilias was the second 17-year-old in Xavi’s first starting line-up along with Gavi and when he was replaced at half-time, on came the 19-year-old Abde Ezzalzouli.
In the warm-up, there was a more intense exercise of attack against defence and when Depay scored it was perhaps not just relief that saw all 10 outfield players celebrating together in the corner.
ARR
