Robert Lewandowski scored a brace to help Barcelona produce one of the high-scoring football scores of the weekend in La Liga. With four games left in the season, Xavi Hernandez’s team is 14 points ahead of Real Madrid in second place and 16 points ahead of third-place Atletico Madrid thanks to a convincing win over the relegation-threatened hosts at the RCDE Stadium. Their joyous celebrations in the centre circle, however, were soon curtailed when a number of home supporters barged onto the field from the stands and chased the players off the field and towards safety while being restrained by security personnel and stewards.
“The few occurrences that happened at the conclusion of the game played at our stadium are regrettable, said Espanyol. Losing saddens us, just like it does for our supporters, but we will never tolerate violence, no matter how slight,” Espanyol said in a statement. “On the other hand, despite the outcomes of the games, we want to thank all the supporters who have supported us today and throughout the season. Espanyol, as usual, expresses our unequivocal condemnation of any kind of violence in the world of football and pledges to use every tool at our disposal to put an end to it. We will also continue to work closely with the security services as needed.”
Goal-scoring machine Robert Lewandowski scored twice during the actual game (11, 40), and he was joined on the scoresheet by Alejandro Balde (20) and Jules Kounde (53) as Barcelona romped to their 27th league victory of the year. Before the final horn, Espanyol scored two goals back thanks to Javi Puado (73) and Joselu (90+2), but it was too little, too late for the home team. They continue to be in 19th place and are four points away from safety after two losses.
Barcelona has now won the Spanish top division 27 times; only Real Madrid has won it 35 times. However, the club’s celebrations were cut short when a sizable contingent of Espanyol supporters entered the ground from behind one of the goals and began racing toward the winners. Security officers acted fast to stop the guests from entering the locker rooms, but riot police had to stand in front of the tunnel’s entrance to stop the fans from entering.
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