Barca survive a nervy Camp Nou night

Barcelona kept alive their aim of a historic treble but only by the skin of their teeth making hard work of what should have been a simple victory over Espanyol.
Cheap tickets of only ten euros ensured a healthy turnout at the Camp Nou but it was to become a more stressful night than expected with first of all Jonathan Soriano missing an excellent chance to put Espanyol ahead.
Barca fielded a number of second string players and the usual edge was missing to their game in midfield and attack. They needed a mistake from the Espanyol goalkeeper to go ahead with Bojan tapping home, but then the youngster showed his true calibre with a delightful chip over the keeper for his second. Barca grabbed a third through a Pique header before the nerves really began to kick in and Espanyol scored twice, the second after a howler from stand-in keeper Pinto.
The main concern for Guardiola must have been the lack of assuredness from his second string. Pinto clearly did not feel at ease and resembled Caceres’ performance in the last round of the cup against Atletico Madrid. Also the midfield failed to function with players caught in possession and forced into mistakes. Gudjohnsen had a bad night while Hleb showed willing but perhaps was to desperate to make an impression as on many occasions he tried to take on a player too many and lost the ball.