{"id":226001,"date":"2026-01-03T23:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T23:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/226001\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T23:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T23:03:09","slug":"espanyol-0-2-barcelona-dani-olmo-and-robert-lewandowski-score-as-barca-extend-lead-at-top-of-la-liga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/226001\/","title":{"rendered":"Espanyol 0-2 Barcelona: Dani Olmo and Robert Lewandowski score as Barca extend lead at top of La Liga"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Barcelona moved seven points clear at the top of La Liga after Dani Olmo and Robert Lewandowski struck late against Espanyol.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Hansi Flick&#8217;s side were frustrated until four minutes from time when Fermin Lopez set up his fellow substitutes to score the crucial goals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">First he played in Olmo to curl a superb strike into the top corner, before more good work by Lopez on the right teed up Lewandowski for a delightful close-range finish in the 90th minute.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Barcelona have scored 12 goals in the last 15 minutes of the second half, more than any other team in La Liga this season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In a lively Catalan derby, the hosts made a fast start with former Blackburn Rovers forward Tyrhys Dolan having a shot blocked after four minutes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">And it was visiting keeper Joan Garcia who returned to haunt his former club, with the 24-year-old &#8211; who left Espanyol last summer after nine years &#8211; making a string of vital saves.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">His replacement Marko Dmitrovic made a crucial stop in the 72nd minute to deny Eric Garcia from close range and a draw looked likely until Barca&#8217;s late pressure paid off.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Second-placed Real Madrid could reduce the gap at the top to four points if they beat Real Betis at home on Sunday (15:15 GMT).<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Espanyol, whose last win over their neighbours in the league was back in 2009, remain in fifth place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barcelona moved seven points clear at the top of La Liga after Dani Olmo and Robert Lewandowski struck&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-226001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}