BARCELONA
Pinto 6.5 - Did not look convincing at set-piece deliveries, and generally has an eccentricity that makes him difficult to rely upon. However Espanyol did not test him often enough.
Carlos Puyol 7.0 - Never lets his side down, and managed to hold a reshuffled defence together with his huge experience. Solid throughout.
Rafael Marquez 4.0 – night ended early due to injury. Replaced by Victor Sanchez.
Jose Caceres 6.5 - He looked nervous tonight, as he has for the majority of his time at Barcelona. He is still only young, but needs to step up to his hefty transfer fee.
Sylvinho 6.5 - The Brazilian may be getting on in years but knows the left-back position extremely well and was comfortable.
Eidur Gudjohnsen 5.5 – An ever-present in the Copa Del Rey but barely touched the ball tonight and was replaced by Xavi.
Seydou Keita 7.0 - Keita is as strong as an ox, and played his part by tackling tenaciously and doing the dirty work in the central midfield area.
Sergio Busquets 6.0 - Looked off-form tonight, and still shows a tendency to go down for too easily under a challenge. Struggled to offer any decent service to Iniesta or Bojan.
Andres Iniesta 6.0 - He too looked off colour, and was nowhere close to his inventive best. Simply did not link up at all with Bojan or Hleb, and drifted out of the match.
Aliaksandr Hleb 5.5 – Completely anonymous tonight, the Belarusian. He barely had a kick, and when he did, it offered nothing to assist his team. Poor.
Bojan Krkic 6.5 - The 18-year old gave his all on a rare start, but he was smuggled out of the match by the strong figures of Jarque and Pareja.
Subs
Victor Sanchez 6.0 - Moved to right-back when he replaced Rafa Marquez, and did reasonably well but Nene did manage to get past him on more than one occasion.
Xavi 5.0 – Brought into the action in an attempt by Guardiola to inject life into the contest, but even he couldn’t produce anything of note during his 25 minutes.
Lionel Messi 5.0 – Similarly, did not have enough time to influence the match as everyone knows he is capable of doing.
ESPANYOL
Carlos Kameni 6.5 – A virtual spectator all evening, and was only troubled by routine catches and saves – handling practice.
Sergio Sanchez 7.0 – Bombed forward whenever possible and gave his side an extra attacking option but lacked a final pass on occasion in promising positions.
Nicolas Pareja 6.5 – Was extremely comfortable all evening and physically dominated Bojan and gave the youngster virtually nothing to work with all evening.
Daniel Jarque 6.5 – Similarly to Pareja, was untroubled by Barca’s ineffective front three and strolled through the ninety minutes.
Beranger 6.5 - Attempted to link with Nene on the left and this route was Espanyols best method of threatening the Blaugrana. Dealt easily with the ineffective Hleb.
Roman 7.0 - An excellent ball player, he tried to prise open Barcelona whenever possible. Slipped a glorious through pass to Luis Garcia in the first half which epitomized his style.
Valdo 6.0 – Tried to run at Sylvinho at every opportunity but his crossing often let him down but never lost his confidence.
Moises 6.5 - He and Keita battled it out in the centre of the pitch, and ultimately cancelled each other out in a midfield stalemate that saw some meaty challenges.
Nene 7.0 - Nene has more ability than his compatriot Nene and he shows excellent feet to worry Sanchez. But his crossing ability left a lot to be desired and didn’t give his forwards enough of an opportunity to get on the end of his deliveries.
Jose Callejon 7.0 – A rare start for the former Madrid man, and he looked lively early on as Espanyol tried to gain the ascendency, and worked extremely hard throughout.
Luis Garcia 6.0 – Sent an excellent first half chance went just wide and completely drifted out of the action.
Subs
Lola 5.0 – Replaced Roman and it was a straight swap, with the substitute slotting in for the final fifteen minutes.
Soriano – 5.0 Given the last ten minutes but managed little time on the ball.
Paul Macdonald, Goal.com
