Pedro back amongst the goals

Pedro back amongst the goals

Pedro’s brace were his first goals for the Club since the Spanish Super Cup Leo Messi has now scored in each of the last eight league games

With Messi and Pedro as the heroes of the night, the Camp Nou Catalan derby threw up some interesting facts and figures, which we detail below:

Tito Vilanova was back in charge of the team and he repeated the same team he’d sent out against Levant – the 11th time he’d repeated a line up this season – with the same 4-0 result

• Ther were 14 players who had come up through the Barça youth academy on the pitch at thestart of the game – 10 for Barça and Baena, Víctor Sánchez, Verdú and Sergio García for Espanyol

• Four Barça players made more than 100 passes (Busquets, Alba, Iniesta and Xavi), whilst no Espanyol player managed more than 40.

Alves made 10 crosses - against 6 by the whole Espanyol team.

Messi has now scored in each of the last eight league games - Celta were the last team he failed to score against.

Pedro doubled his goal tally for the season with his brace against Espanyol – the first time he’s scored since the return leg of the Spanish Super Cup against Madrid (3-2).

• The last time Pedro bagged two goals in a game was against Bilbao in the Spanish Cup Final in May.

• It was Pedro’s 9th brace for the team and his second in a Catalan derby – having scored twice in the 1-5 win at El Prat in the 201/11 season.

• This was the fifth match of the season that Valdes has kept a clean sheet , the others were against Valencia (1-0), Granada (2-0), Rayo (0-5) and Llevant (0-4)

Thiago, who came on for the last half hour, made his 50th league appearance for the Club.

• The win equals the best ever first half to a season, with next week’s game against Malaga still to come.

Força Barça
Força Barça

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