You know you are a good team when your opponents have to resort to stomping on your best player and saying horrifically offensive things to you. Luckily for world-beating Barcelona, its opponent in this case received two red cards for its actions, although you could argue it should have been more.
Espanyol’s keeper, Pau Lopez, seemingly intentionally stomped on Lionel Messi and completely escaped punishment. His actions compounded the verbal abuse given to Barcelona striker Luis Suarez by Espanyol defensive midfielder Papakouli Diop. According to the match official, Diop told Suarez, “I s*** on your w**** mother.”
Taken all together, Espanyol’s actions should certainly have been classified as unsportsmanlike and violent. But Diop would disagree with that latter classification.
According to Carrusel Deportivo, Diop was quoted after the match as saying “You can’t say we were violent. We didn’t draw blood. If we wanted Barça players would’ve left on a stretcher.”
First of all since when is violence only violence if it means someone leaves on a stretcher? What is this, some sort of extreme extension of “no blood, no foul?” If that is the case, then I would like to return Diop’s attention to the 20 fouls his team committed.
Second of all, this really shows out outclassed Espanyol were by Barcelona. Not only did they have to resort to such drastic measures, but their worst offenders felt that they were holding back. It’s like Diop is saying, “because they Barcelona our violence was OK. Because they are Barcelona we are allowed to be more violent.”
If Espanyol was playing, I don’t know, Rayo Vallecano, and they resorted to the kind of violence that they used against Barcelona, there is no way they would be hinting that Rayo Vallencano “got off lucky” after the game. Espanyol wouldn’t need to be as violent with Rayo Vallecano, because there is no need to intimidate, because Rayo Vallecano are not good.
Espanyol’s need to intimidate Barcelona, and Diop’s belief that his team’s tactics weren’t that bad, shows that Barcelona is one of the best teams in the world.
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