Barcelona’s late special delivery breaks Espanyol’s derby hearts

Nico González had in his hand a piece of paper. Time was running out and unless they could do something about this - and fast - Barcelona were going to lose a Catalan derby at Cornellá for the first time ever in La Liga. It had only taken them 73 seconds to score one, but in 73 minutes they hadn’t got a second. Worse, Espanyol had. Sergi Darder curled in a gorgeous equaliser and then Raúl de Tomás put them ahead, meditating cross-legged on the grass ignoring the madness all around him. Xavi Hernández, though, had a plan, written down and sent by special delivery.

Trouble was, writing it was one thing, reading it another. And actually getting it to come off, well, that was a step again. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had already replaced Frenkie de Jong. There were 18 minutes left when Nico and Ousmane Dembélé replaced Gavi and Jordi Alba. It was 25 days since Dembélé had been given an ultimatum: renew or leave; needed now, the man who was never going to play again ran back on at his club’s city rivals, where a reception less hostile than at home awaited him. Alongside, the kid from the academy came too.

Nico dashed over and gave the sheet torn from Xavi’s exercise book to Sergio Busquets, who turned to Gerard Piqué. This was a lot to take in - a back three, Sergiño Dest to the left, four up front, Ferran returning to the middle - and they looked a little lost, rotating the paper it like a map that was upside down or instructions for an Ikea wardrobe, a pair of Homer Simpsons wondering out what the hell le grille is. They could have been forgiven for wanting to simplify it all, concluding: why don’t we just stick it in the box for the big guy? Which was pretty much what they did in the end. The very end, the goal that rescued