Espanyol will have to scratch their pockets in this final stretch of the transfer market if they don’t want to suffer more than necessary to maintain their permanence. The effort of the white-and-blues has not managed to repeat a feat like that of Balaídos against a Rayo Vallecano that maintains its particular idyll in Catalonia (0-2). Since they certified their return to Primera in Montilivi in June 2021, the Madrid side have managed to collect four points at Camp Nou and six at Cornellà-El Prat.
The Spanish stadium did not have the desired premiere despite the good start that Espanyol led in the first minutes of the match, and which perfectly reflected what Diego Martínez asks of his team: work and collective solidarity. There are no players with special privileges in the teams of the Galician coach, who demands the same sacrifice for all his pieces: it does not matter the names, the market value or the stripes that a player has. Only the workers board Diego Martínez’s boat. This is how, with intense and effective pressure, Espanyol managed to neutralize in the first minutes the exit from behind a Rayo that had many problems to overcome the midfield line. The good positioning of the locals managed to decline the game towards the visiting area.
The Madrid team, used to being the team that falters under pressure in the opposing field, tasted their own medicine. This is how Espanyol managed to remove a Lejeune from the area who sent himself off with two consecutive fouls in two minutes. The match quickly turned against the Spanish team, who did not know how to do any harm when they managed to have Rayo on the ropes. The joy did not last for many minutes in Cornellà-El Prat, who strongly protested Figueroa Vázquez’s strict decision to send off Sergi Gómez after the VAR warned that the central defender had obstructed Camello with his arm.
Staying with ten men was much worse for Espanyol than for Rayo. Those of Iraola, surely with more ability to generate offensive play than the locals, took out their fangs when they saw that the white-and-blue defensive framework could start to present some leaks. Despite Diego Martínez’s effort to make up for the red card by bringing on Calero, no one managed to prevent a genius from an Isi determined to make life impossible for Espanyol. The talented left-back invented a poisoned curling shot in a free-kick that had been served short and that surprised Lecomte.
Three shots on the post
Espanyol went into the break with the feeling that something more than a bulletproof shield is needed. Despite the constant presence in the opposite field, the white-and-blues barely managed to generate three shots on the post in the second half. The local offensive incapacity contrasted with the effectiveness of the visitors, since at the start of the resumption Rayo bit back in a good action by Álvaro that Ciss solved with pleasure. With the 0-2 on the scoreboard, Rayo put the automatic pilot in front of a Spanish side without ideas or ability to repeat a miracle similar to Balaídos.
When the game called for some repulsive offensive, Diego Martínez only found on the bench a Puado who was coming off an injury and a bunch of midgets from the squad. There are no longer veterans like Vilhena, loaned to Salernitana; Vargas, completing the paperwork to accompany Wu Lei to Shanghai Port; Embarba, who could enter into an exchange with José Carlos Lazo, from Almeria, or an RDT that will exhaust all the possible options that the market offers him to leave for the Premier League. Nor is Dimata or Aleix Vidal expected, who is not part of the coach’s plans. Without any of these names, Espanyol presented an inoperative attack that failed to supply balls to a Joselu too alone in attack.
The defeat against Rayo, a warning in time for a Chen Yansheng who two and a half years later will return to Barcelona. He will do so at the most opportune moment, when an effort must be made to find reinforcements for guarantees for Diego Martínez.
