Lazy, lazy and negligent once again, Espanyol starred in another desperate start to the game in Valladolid that completely conditioned their chances of success. A pathology worthy of study that of this team, the worst in the first parts by far in the entire League. A constant that sometimes corrects the epic of the second parts, but when that is not enough, as in José Zorrilla, it ends with the team on the canvas in a just and irremediable way. With this defeat, Espanyol remains two points behind the relegation.
This was a six-point game. Of those that it is convenient above all not to lose due to its incidence in the classification. But not even the importance made the blue and whites appear on time. Not a bit of ambition with the ball. And again total absence of a plan that was not to search for the recovered Joselu with aerial balls. Darder and Denis Suárez, fine stylists, once again saw the ball fly over their heads on more occasions than they would like.
Valladolid was the absolute dominator of the match from the start. And that for the first time Diego Martínez was able to count on his fetish eleven, the one that includes the players who have supported the team in the first leg of the competition such as Joselu, Darder and Braithwaite and those who arrived in the winter market such as Pacheco , Denis Suarez and Cesar Montes. Among all they had to form a team with airs of greater grandeur than seen so far. None of that happened because whoever plays, the plan doesn't change, and that's the coach's credit above all.
Greater aggressiveness and intention allowed Valladolid, the least scoring team in the championship, to have a large number of occasions to score several goals only in the first half. He only found the goal in a shot from Oscar Plano from the edge that Darder deflected decisively so that Pacheco couldn't reach it. But before and after, those of Pacheta made more merits for a matter of attitude.
As far as fitness is concerned, Espanyol showed themselves to be much more capable than what they were offering. In fact, as soon as he was able to be a bit precise with the ball, chances came. They were isolated flashes, like a shot from Darder from the edge after a good play by Suárez and another from Puado to the crossbar. The striker's misfortune is worth studying. This season he alone has hit the post six times, elevating Espanyol to the leader of this figure with eleven hits against the post.
As if that were not enough, Brian Oliván had to retire injured and his place was taken with little success by Óscar Gil, until Martínez decided to change bands to Pierre-Gabriel. But the Frenchman was not worthy of the position either and ended up being substituted after Gonzalo Plata made him a tailored suit in the second goal, the work of Aguado.
Totally confused, Espanyol survived due to the low capacity against his rival's goal. Valladolid had the third on several occasions, the clearest one a one-on-one with Gonzalo Plata's goalkeeper, who sent the ball to the post.
But Martínez's team lives very well with the vertigo of the second half. When he feels defeat on his skin, it activates in an irreverent way and this time it was no different. Braithwaite cut the gap to five to go and the Blue and Whites put almost unbearable pressure on them. But there was no miracle and Espanyol is two points from relegation before visiting the Bernabeu
2 - Real Valladolid: Asenjo; Fresneda, Joaquín, El Yamiq, Escudero (Olaza, m.75); Roque Mesa (Aguado, m.59), Hongla; Silver, Iván Sánchez (Machis, m.64), Plano (Sergio León, m.75); Larin (Monchu, d. 75).
1 - Spanish RCD: Pacheco; Óscar Gil (Rubén Sánchez, d.46); Sergi Gómez, Montes, Olivan (Pierre Gabriel, m.9 Edu Expósito, m.80); Vini de Souza, Darder, Denis Suárez (Nico Melamed, m.70); Puado (Lazo, m.80), Braithwaite and Joselu Mato.
Goals: 1-0, m.25: Ivan Sanchez. 2-0, m.62: Watered down. 2-1, m.87: Braithwaite.
Referee: Valentin Pizarro Gomez. He showed yellow cards to Roque Mesa (m.28), Escudero (m.43) and Hongla (m.45), from Real Valladolid, and Óscar Gil (m.23) and Joselu (m.74), from Espanyol.
Incidents: Match corresponding to the twenty-fourth day of LaLiga Santander played at the José Zorrilla stadium before 19,212 spectators.
