Remnants of a bourgeois past appear in Cornellà.
Espanyol pays tribute to the divine Ricardo Zamora, who today would turn 123 years old: Tommy N'Kono, its ambassador, gives a shirt of the divine to Villarreal B. Sarà perché ti amo, the anthem of Ricchi e Poveri that fifty and forty-somethings play on the public address system We sang and danced in the eighties, when the blue and white team rubbed shoulders with the league's crème. They wave flags.
And then, the referee Sánchez López starts and the parakeets come across their sour reality.
They win but they suffer, and scared they end up celebrating their return to the fight for promotion, because this is the Second Division and the opponent, the son of Villarreal, has made them shiver.
It's what it takes.
The chronicler grants himself a license, a pinch of fictional journalism. He wonders what is going through Martin Braithwaite's (32) mind.
A while ago, perhaps not so long ago, Braithwaite was an important player in Danish football. And he was in Barça's starting eleven. Today, Braithwaite has nothing left of that bourgeois past, but he does not give up or resign himself, and at 17 minutes, amid the nothingness of the match, he hunts down a long ball, cuts into the area, unstitches Íñiguez and the entire Villarreal B and breaks its own fabrications, it manifests itself, bourgeois pride.
While Cornellà remembers the legendary Dani Jarque in the 21st minute, Braithwaite waves his arms, asks the public for more and the stands answer him.
Today Yes.
Today yes, the 18,000 throats are said, and also the people of the Curva and the Grada Canito, and even more so when Espigares knocks down Pere Milla in the area and Braithwaite, from a penalty, scores the second. He breathes, breathes.
The submarine's reserve team is timid, or so it seems, because it never looks into Pacheco's frame: there is the blue and white goalkeeper running around under the sticks to stay warm, and Espanyol in need - five games without a win they had chained until then - relaxes and it is liked.
Álvaro Aguado plays, an orderly and precise man, the parakeet discovery of the year, but the team likes each other too much, so much so that they get confused.
He fiddles so much in front that he leaves the back door open. Álex Forés catches a confused ball and beats Pacheco, as cold as he was surprised. The 38th minute passes and Cornellà does not open his mouth, the goal is not even announced over the public address system, nothing has happened here, and this Espanyol that was taking a nap lulled by Aguado and Braithwaite has to forget who it was to focus on who it is.
It's your turn to roll up your sleeves and compact yourself. There is no placid victory in this silver category, territory of gladiators, Stakhanovists and bounty hunters.
What remains is the fight and the fear, the inability to close the game –Braithwaite squanders two counters, there is no news from top scorer Puado, Pere Milla gets confused again and again, Cornellà dismisses him with whistles–, and the timid Villarreal B It stretches as the minutes go by and Del Moral is about to break Pacheco's frame and blur the parakeet past and present, how his people have to look.
Espanyol: Pacheco, El Hilali (Óscar Gil 64), Sergi Gómez, Calero, Brian Oliván, Pol Lozano (Gragera 85), Aguado (Keidi Bare 73), Edu Expósito (Salvi Sánchez 64), Pere Milla (Keita Balde 73), Handful and Braithwaite. Coach: Luis Miguel Ramis
Villarreal B: Morro, Lanchi (Marcos Sánchez 91), Espigares, Pablo Íñiguez, Tasende, Alberto Del Moral (Gelardo 91), Carlo Adriano (Ferrari 82), Javier Ontiveros, Rodri Alonso (Requena 82), Álex Forés and Jorge Pascual ( Collado 55). Coach: Miguel Alvarez
Field: RCDE Stadium, 18,249 spectators
Referee: Rafael Sánchez López (Murcia Col.). He admonished El Hilali, Pascual, Calero, Lanchi
Goles: 1-0 Braithwaite (17), 2-0 Braithwaite (p. 32), 2–1 Forés (38)
