While Barcelona limped to their 34th match without defeat against Sevilla on Sunday, it hasn’t been such joyful watching for their city rivals. For Espanyol, they are firmly in a relegation battle and hadn’t been given a chance by some a few weeks ago.
However, back-to-back wins, including Saturday’s 4-2 win over Sporting Gijon, have seen Constantin Galca’s men move four points clear of the drop zone. Much of their hopes of survival have been pinned on the performances of 20-year-old Marco Asensio, who has spent the season on loan from Real Madrid.
Understandably, with all their hopes put in one basket on a Spain Under-21 international experiencing his first senior campaign, it makes sense that many thought they would fail in keeping their top-flight status.
However, for now, they continue to defy the odds, and Asensio has played a huge part in that. The versatile midfielder is averaging a WhoScored rating of 8.10 in his last three appearances and his performance at the weekend was again pivotal to their success.
The 20-year-old was denied the opportunity of getting on the scoresheet by the woodwork. Added to that, he completed more dribbles than any other player on display at the El Molinon (4) and no Espanyol player created as many chances as Asensio (2).
In fact, the Real Madrid loan star has created at least 10 more chances than any other player aged under 21 across Europe’s top five leagues this season (45). However, while his performance was impressive, it wasn’t good enough to earn the honour as the highest rated player of the week.
That right was in fact reserved for teammate Gerard Moreno, who scored twice from his four shots on target. Asensio and Moreno were joined in the team by fellow forward Burgui, who got on the scoresheet and completed three dribble.
