Another catastrophic start. A new defensive mistake. And one more defeat away from home, and they are already seven in eight games away from Cornellà. Espanyol does not learn from its mistakes, condemned for its inability to govern the areas, although outside of them it is not worthy of the slightest praise. This time they narrowly succumbed to a direct rival, Getafe, who only needed ten minutes of inspiration and 80 minutes of concentration to deny Espanyol a tie, which will remain in the relegation zone for another day.
The Barbastro disaster once again urged Manolo González to wake up by teaching his players a lesson, whom he did not hesitate to point out in the preview for not giving the performance that he considers essential. For this reason, against Getafe the team that beat Celta repeated, with the only forced change being Sergi Gómez due to Kumbulla’s suspension. He also repeated the approach, with three men in the middle and Justin Smith again as a starter.
A horrible first half and a better second, but not enough
But the coach’s angry message was of absolutely no use. For the fourth game in a row away from Cornellà (Athletic, Barça and Girona were the previous ones), Espanyol conceded a goal before quarter of an hour. But worse than that was his inability to make more than two passes in a row during the first half hour. It is true that this team is not designed to do tricks with the ball, not in vain is it the team with the least possession in the league, with only 38.5%, but the image last night against a direct rival was completely exasperating.
Getafe came out with more intention and with very clear ideas of how to hurt Espanyol. From the beginning they applied high pressure that nullified the initiative of the parakeet central defenders, disastrous once again with the ball at their feet. Three shots on goal in five minutes were the prelude to Álvaro Rodríguez’s goal. The striker anticipated Sergi Gómez, again unlucky on the mark, and forcefully finished off a Milla cross to beat Joan García before the tenth minute.
Álvaro Rodríguez overtook Sergi Gómez, singled out again for his mistake in marking
The solidity and commitment that Manolo González demanded were nowhere to be seen in that section. Getafe took advantage of it, the team that has scored the fewest goals so far this season. After the goal, the locals took their foot off the accelerator, but Espanyol had nothing prepared, exasperating when they tried to build. Only a successful although somewhat orthopedic triangulation at half an hour allowed Cardona to get closer to Soria’s goal, one more spectator until that moment.
At half-time, in an authorities box completely empty due to the 4 degrees that the thermometer showed, Fran Garagarza was walking around thoughtfully, perhaps meditating on the continuity of Manolo González. Upon resumption, the man from Lugo once again gave reasons to remain in office. The coach revolutionized the game with the entry of Cheddira and his team improved, became more ambitious and began to generate more danger. Král’s shot from the edge of the area was fortunately deflected by Alderete when the goal seemed close.
Espanyol improved after the restart, condemned for its lack of aim
Getafe was no longer pressing and was dedicated to taking advantage of the blue and white mistakes (yesterday in red and white). In one of those recurring losses, Coba, a powerful and skilled winger, surpassed El Hilali and shot high. Espanyol responded with a great center from Cardona that Puado finished off in a semi-miss at goalmouth.
There was nothing more this Espanyol could do, which was unable to make any scratches on the orderly and forceful defense put forward by Bordalas. This team drifts when it plays away from home, be it in Montjuïc, Barbastro or, like yesterday, in Getafe
Getafe, 1 – Espanyo, 0
1.- Getafe: Soria; Juan Iglesias, Djené, Alderete, Diego Rico; Nyom, Arambarri, Milla, Coba (Patrick, min. 75); Uche (Yellu, min. 82) and Álvaro Rodríguez (Bertug, min. 75).
0.- Espanyol: Joan García; Omar El Hilali (Tejero, min. 79), Sergi Gómez, Cabreara, Oliván; Justin Smith (Cheddira, min. 46), Pol Lozano, Král, Jofre (Roca, min. 70); Cardona (Veliz, min. 79) and Puado.
Goal: 1-0, min. 8: Álvaro Rodríguez.
Referee: Mateo Busquets Ferrer (Balearic Committee). He showed a yellow card to Jofre (min. 5), Omar El Hilali (min. 58), Cabrera (min. 65), Roca (min. 82), Sergi Gómez (min. 89) and Oliván (min. 89) on the other hand. for Espanyol and to Alderete (min. 29), Arambarri (min. 42) and Patrick (min. 83) for Getafe.
Incidents: match corresponding to the sixteenth day of LaLiga EA Sports played at the Getafe Coliseum in front of 7,559 spectators.
#Espanyol #signs #shipwreck #Cornellà
