Barcelona 4-1 Espanyol: Champions move nine clear

Barcelona moved nine points clear of Real Madrid in the LaLiga title race as they cruised to a 4-1 win over city rivals Espanyol at Camp Nou.

The defending champions received a favour from Girona on Friday as their neighbours held Madrid to a 1-1 draw.

And they took full advantage of Los Blancos’ latest slip up, a double from Ferran Torres putting them in command.

Pol Lozano pulled one back for Espanyol, but late efforts from Lamine Yamal and Marcus Rashford ensured the Blaugrana have a commanding lead at the summit with seven games to go.

Barcelona take complete command of title race

Barca needed only nine minutes to open the scoring, Torres heading in at the far post from a Yamal corner.

It was another sublime Yamal assist that saw Torres double his tally, the former Manchester City forward rolling the ball home after latching onto the winger’s precise outside-of-the-boot pass.

Yamal then bent a free-kick narrowly over the bar before Espanyol goalkeeper Marko Dmitrovic frustrated Eric Garcia and Fermin Lopez with a double save.

Torres looked to have completed his hat-trick 10 minutes into the second half, only for his close-range effort following a well-worked free-kick to be ruled out for offside.

And soon after Espanyol put themselves back in the game as Lozano swept home from the edge of the area with an arrowing finish that left Joan Garcia with no chance.

Substitute Rashford was denied by more fine work from Dmitrovic as he sought to restore Barca’s two-goal lead after being sent clean through on goal.

Espanyol looked to be finishing the game the stronger, but their hopes were dashed when Martin Casado played in Yamal, whose success in winning a duel with the onrushing Dmitrovic allowed him to tuck home and put the game beyond doubt.

There was still time for Rashford to apply gloss to the scoreline in spectacular fashion, volleying back across goal and into the bottom corner from Frenkie de Jong’s dinked cross from the byline.