Espanyol worsened their already bad situation with a deserved defeat in Butarque against a now penultimate Leganés who knew how to play their game much better. Nothing came out for Pablo Machín’s team as he wanted on a very cold morning, with a lot of wind, which made the game even more difficult.
A day after closing the first round, the salvation remains for Espanyol to five points. It is not an unattainable distance with what remains to be played, but the feelings are bad. No improvement in parakeets. The victory does not make Leganés poor but, nevertheless, Javier Aguirre’s men offer more vital signs for hope. They are strong at home, where they get their barn from their points.
In tow
Everything went wrong for Espanyol from the beginning
Espanyol was never incapable of imposing its football. His putting into action was bad and he spent the whole game in tow. Leganés had it clearer. It is a team that blocks the game a lot in the center of the field and that as far as it can is very vertical. Seek speed up En Nesyri and Braithwaite to deal damage. At twelve minutes he had already advanced on the scoreboard in a pass from Oscar to Braithwaite. The Danish left his marker on a reverse that looked like basketball, faced Diego López and beat him skillfully with a heeled shot.
So soon behind, Espanyol could not enter the game in the entire first half that he escaped without a single dangerous approach to the area of Pichu Cuéllar. Their midfielders always seemed worse than those of Leganés, losing the individual duels, the balls divided and denied when finding the space to give the last pass or kick on goal. Marc Roca did not appear and Granero lost his strength amid protests. At the edge of the break he saw the yellow for protesting that he deserved long before.
Having the match where they wanted, Leganés was always much closer to finishing. He had a couple of good chances in the first act, a free-kick from Óscar in an excellent position that went to the barrier and a counter in the last minutes that ended in a shot from En Nesyri to the side of the net when Butarque was He was already licking his lips with the second goal.
The second goal
In Nesyri he put the sentence
The second half seemed to start a little better for Espanyol. Marc Roca put in an excellent center and Campuzano failed to finish. It was a mirage, because at 54 minutes, in the first local arrival, En Nasyri burst the ball in Diego López’s squad. It came after a good pass from Kevin and a previous heel from Braithwaite.
After the 2-0, Machín immediately opted for a first offensive change. He retired Granero and put a forward into action: Ferreyra. As expected, with everything lost, Espanyol took a step forward. He stretched lines and went for the goal that would get him in the game.
The game became more alive and Leganés found great spaces to shoot the counter. The first more or less clear chance for the Catalan team came at 66 minutes, in a shot from Campuzano that went very little over the crossbar. At 76, Machín gave another turn of the screw and removed the Chinese Wu Lei for Víctor Campuzano. Espanyol’s pressure intensified in the last ten minutes, but their control of the ball, despite bottling Leganés near Cuéllar, did not translate into dangerous occasions.
The game got mixed up when they reached the area and the last change from Machín came six minutes from the end: Pedrosa entered for Marc Roca. At that time the wind was blowing so much and so hard that the ball seemed to have a life of its own, quite the opposite of Espanyol, which was gradually fading.
No penalty
The VAR denied the maximum penalty to Wu Lei
The last hint of life came at 42. Alberola Rojas whistled a penalty for taking down Wu Lei by Awaziem. It was reviewed by the VAR and annulled the maximum penalty for prior offside of the Chinese player upon receiving. And the defeat of Espanyol was consummated. The nearly 100 parakeet fans present in Butarque chanted “resignation board.” It looks bad for parakeets. In Butarque his image was to worry.
