Barcelona boss Xavi apologises for Ronald Araujo’s controversial gesture against Espanyol

Barcelona boss Xavi has apologised for Ronald Araujo’s controversial gesture towards the end of the Catalan derby on Sunday evening. Luuk de Jong rescued a point for Barca late on at the Estadi Cornella-El Prat, heading in to level the scores at 2-2 in the sixth minute of injury-time.

Pedri had opened the scoring for the visitors, volleying home Jordi Alba’s cross from deep after only two minutes, but a curling effort from Sergi Darder and an off-the-shoulder strike from Raul de Tomas almost gave the hosts victory. Ad/> The match was soured late on when Nico Melamed and Gerard Pique received second yellow cards following a clash out wide.

Manu Morlanes, who had come on as a substitute for Espanyol only to go off again with injury, was also shown red for dissent right at the death. LigaBarcelona CEO Reverter resigns with Spotify deal looming08/02/2022 AT 11:32 Following the dismissals of Melamed and Pique, Barca defender Araujo was seen making a gesture towards the Espanyol bench which was interpreted as suggesting that they were set to be relegated to the Segunda Division.

He held up two fingers several times, accompanied with a thumbs-down. Asked about the incident after the match, Xavi said: “I haven’t seen it but we have to respect the opponent, the referee and the rival fans.

“We always have to be respectful, but the tension can sometimes make that hard. But if that’s what happened then I apologise because it shouldn’t.” Luuk de Jong pops up deep into stoppage time to rescue a point for Barcelona against Espanyol Barcelona could bring in Franck Kessie, Erling Haaland and Alexander Isak to rebuild squad Ferran Reverter resigns from position as Barcelona CEO ahead of Spotify deal, citing personal and family reasons