Lewandowski fires Barça to Liga title but invoke Espanyol fans’ wrath

Barcelona’s league title celebrations almost ended in serious trouble when Espanyol fans breached security, invaded the pitch and ran after them, chasing the newly crowned champions down the tunnel. Fortunately some of the players and staff, dancing in circles on the pitch having defeated their city rivals 4-2, spotted them coming just in time and they were able to outrun their pursuers, forced to continue festivities from the safety of the dressing room instead. As they escaped, there were some confrontations between home supporters and security staff, as well as protests aimed at the directors’ box.

La Liga winners for the first time in four years, Barcelona’s party had barely been going a minute but coach Xavi Hernández had already begun telling his players to make way just before the stampede started. It was, he said, a question of “respect”. He knew what this meant: for himself, lifting a first major trophy and for everyone. Opposite him in the other dugout was a friend and class-mate from his coaching course, experiencing very different emotions. If success and failure, triumph and despair, coexist in every game, it could hardly have been expressed so clearly as it was in Cornella.

A very late Espanyol goal denied Barcelona the title in 2007 and when they went down in 2020 they did so at Barcelona’s ground, but there has been no derby quite like this, vital for both teams and at both ends of the table. Top since week 14, way back in October, recent results had meant that Barcelona would be champions with a victory here, which would have been significant enough but it would also leave Espanyol cut adrift, four points from safety with four weeks to go.

“There’s so much at stake for us, more than for them. Not even