Espanyol breathes in the duel for survival against Valladolid | Soccer | Sports

The crucial clash for permanence between RCD Espanyol and Real Valladolid ended with victory and oxygen for the local team for Castilian torture. Valladolid could not improve its feelings in its efforts to fight for the category. A great goal from Javi Puado, acrobatic control and volley near the edge of the area, led to Espanyol’s victory. The visitors lost Moro in the second half, after a fall that broke his collarbone. Football, which understands little about merits, leaves the Catalans with 19 points, four above the rival, and cuts short the always important repris after changing coaches. Manolo González maintains his position thanks to Roberto Fernández’s goal, added in the winter, because if this window is useful for anything, it is to improve what was wrong in the summer.

The two teams jumped to Cornellá with that mixture between the desire to win and the fear of losing. The locals started with doubts about the course, without sinking but without taking off, with the visitors spurred by the victory against Betis, without which this would not be almost a final but a condemnation. The beginnings revealed that mutual respect, but also why we are the way we are: inaccuracies and coaches ruminating. The first, from the parakeets, with Cabrera heading the crossbar. Oops. Uy pucelano soon, with Lucas Rosa against Joan García, great at closing spaces and showing him that sometimes not even the best striker is enough to score. The next one, blue and white. The long-awaited goal, and what a goal. Wow, in half an hour. , in addition to the goalkeeper, amazed with a right-footed control over a frontal delivery to turn and connect with his left foot. It seemed simple.

The target overwhelmed Manolo González’s men, since it is one thing to dream of going ahead in a direct duel and another to do it, and it spurred on Valladolid. If they can, they started the day with 16 points, we with 15 won’t be that far either, they thought, finally with some optimism and good will after months of dark clouds. Espanyol, brother of “Directive resignation!” and also immersed in anxiety and looking more at the board than at the grass, he did not know how to impose himself and play with his advantage, but instead made the classic mistake of backing down and trying to put away his clothes too soon in front of a Pucela who, unlike so many times, , he saw himself capable of something more. A team play that left Marcos André in front of the goalkeeper ended in the clouds, as bad a finish as it was a good preliminary. Raúl Moro’s poisonous, the miracle of this erratic Pucela season.

Rest with 1-0, scoreboard and locker room to return with the same dynamic, Cocca’s more animated to the point of horror: Moro, on a stretcher. Broken collarbone, at least two months out for the best man. Life and football must continue even if it costs and from the relics of the 11 to the miracle of the 5: Javi Sánchez, central, puts the foul on the fallen teammate in the squad and starts again in the 60th. An idyllic start for the newcomer Roberto , registered two days ago: arrive and kiss the goal. Heading, justifying a winter signing – in the face of zero additions from the needy Valladolid – and trying to hold on here where the heart beats too fast and overshadows the coach’s tactics and orders.

The stick sank the Blanquivioletas, dead, with only two substitutions, without ideas, not even capable of the old trick of kicking and charging the area to look for a big door or escape from the infirmary like, for the moment, Espanyol. Cocca, like his fans, sent a resounding message to the board at the cost of leaving his team with one hand tied behind their back in the hope of scratching a point in Cornellá.

Marcos André had it for Valladolid but finished with the hump. The goal costs money. Permanence costs more every day.