De La Pena summons Espanyol miracle in Camp Nou to resurrect title race.

(From Guardian Unlimited)

They had waited 111 days for Espanyol to win, 174 days for Barcelona to lose and 9,800 days -- 27 years, give or take a few leap years and some ropey maths -- for Espanyol to win and Barcelona to lose in the same Camp Nou match. They'd been hanging around since the start of footballing time, some 29,140 days ago, for the team at the top of the Spanish league to lose to the team from the bottom at home and they had waited increasingly impatiently for a hint of a real title race, inventing one when it stubbornly refused to materialise.

Saturday night's Catalan derby at the Camp Nou, then, would be the most uneven contest in history. Even the Bible couldn't match it -- at least David had a catapult and a stone. For Espanyol, taking on Barcelona was, according to one preview, like "fighting King Kong with a teaspoon". The team that hadn't won since early November -- one that had employed more coaches than it had secured victories -- against the team that had not lost since August. The unbeatable against the incapable. Hell, Samuel Eto'o …