Barca wins Catalan derby on Pedro, Villa brace
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Barcelona players celebrate after scoring against Espanyol during their Spanish La Liga match on Saturday. Barcelona trounced the home side 5-1. |
Barcelona obliterated Espanyol's home dominance with braces by Pedro Rodriguez and David Villa to claim the Catalan capital derby 5-1 and provisionally move five points clear of second-place Real Madrid in the Spanish league on Saturday.
Espanyol had conceded only two goals in its seven victories at El Prat-Cornella Stadium, but Barcelona needed just 30 minutes to double that number and beat the best home side in the league.
Pedro raced by the pair of Espanyol center backs to slot a ball from Lionel Messi past a diving Carlos Kameni for Barcelona's 19th-minute opener.
Xavi Hernandez added the second at the half-hour mark from a difficult angle after some nice work from his teammates.
Guardiola's team has won 10 straight, gone unbeaten in 22, and scored five or more goals seven times this season in all competitions.
After jeering the Barcelona players as they were announced, the 40,000-seat stadium saluted Andres Iniesta with a standing ovation for his dedication of his World Cup-winning goal to friend and Espanyol defender Daniel Jarque, who died of a heart attack in 2009.
Kameni withstood Rodriguez one-on-one just before the Spain winger got his brace rushing in to beat the Espanyol goalkeeper to a rebound of a Messi strike in the 60th.
Pablo Osvaldo grabbed one back for Espanyol two minutes later to end Barcelona's four-game run of not allowing a goal.
Before the Argentine's goal, Barcelona had outscored opponents 31-0.
Villa added the fourth in the 76th and capped the win in the 84th to bring his season tally to 11 goals, with identical charges from the left with the Espanyol defense completely undone and Kameni without a hope.
Earlier, Giuseppe Rossi piloted Villarreal to a 3-1 win over Mallorca. Also, Athletic Bilbao beat Levante 2-1, while Valencia downed Real Sociedad 2-1 and Deportivo La Coruna drew 1-1 with Sporting Gijon.
