In Andorra it doesn't snow like it used to, but now there is a soccer team with which you can also have a great time. An experiment sponsored by Gerard Piqué so that football is the protagonist but which still has several phases of development left. This was evidenced yesterday by Espanyol, capable of completing one of the worst games of the season and despite it taking a point. Everything was done by the local team. The bad, an own goal, and the good, a draw that in the end proved too little for them, as they deserved much more given the poor ambition that Luis Miguel Ramis' team offered once again.
Surrounded by peaks, at an intersection between mountains that exceed 1,000 meters, the Estadi Nacional de Andorra, despite its solemn name, seems like a tiny space. That is the test bed of the ambition of a country that has just begun to breathe professional football. Five years after Kosmos bought the club in 2018, Andorra finally collided yesterday with Espanyol. The match was highly anticipated in the Principality due to the mutual animosity between the patron of the local club and the blue and white team. The modest stadium posted a no tickets sign (3,000 spectators) and up to twenty fans came to stand on the balconies of the adjacent buildings. A lot of morbidity outside the field, but also inside it, with two completely opposite ideologies.
From the beginning it was clear what material each team is made of. Andorra is an outstanding student of football championed by FC Barcelona. A team that builds and progresses with patience, that gives prominence to the ball and that is brave in that premise to illogical extremes. The goalkeeper-libero with whom Eder Sarabia surprised yesterday was an example of that wonderful madness in which this group lives. Opposite, Ramis's Espanyol is a team under construction whose idea is very conservative and that aims to win games through solitary actions that flourish from the talent of its best players.
During the first 25 minutes the monopoly of the ball was Andorran. And in front of a team that wanted to play soccer, there was another that perhaps came to beautiful Andorra to go shopping or go sledding, but not to win the game. Once again Ramis lined up a very defensive midfield, with Keidi Bare and Pol Lozano, protecting themselves from defensive losses. The coach could not count on his starting centre-backs, Calero and Cabrera, and he was forced to improvise with Gragera in that position. Only an error by Dani Martin allowed the parakeets to see the goal throughout the first half, but Edu Expósito, from very far away, sent the ball wide.
The locals had great chances both from distant shots and from lateral crosses. In one of them, Nieto hit the post with a cross from Iván Gil. In another, Lobete met Pacheco, with a lot of work throughout the afternoon. It was during the restart when Espanyol offered something more offensive. At least they managed to equalize the duel and it was no longer just the Espanyol area that was the protagonist.
In one of those few arrivals, fortune was on their side. Puado crossed into the area and Diego Pampín sent the ball with his chest towards his own goal. He hit the big team with his small team proposal. But if this Andorra is characterized by something, it is by having faith in what it does. That's why Sarabia redoubled his offensive bet and got his way. Iván Gil was the one who scored at the far post after a great cross from Petxarroman.
Immediately after the goal Braithwaite had the second goal with a shot from the edge of the area that went wide. From there, he did not want to replicate Espanyol, who settled for a draw while his rival continued pursuing what he felt was his. The point does not help either team, but it shows that the blue and white team still does not know how to win away from home. And that Ramis, after six league games, does not improve on Luis García.
