Unfocused players, without confidence and afraid of losing. Lots of nerves and too much tension. Espanyol is today a team that is under pressure. A change of coach that has meant a radical change in the game model may not have helped. Seven days after the arrival of Luis Miguel Ramis, the blue and white team plays worse, creates fewer chances, shoots less on goal, scores fewer goals and concedes almost the same number. Against Burgos yesterday, in the last game of the first round, there was another chapter of that instability. He came back three times to tie a match in which he was worse than his rival. Despite everything, he will sleep fourth on the table.
The feelings are very bad and yesterday the stands were fed up with everything they had experienced. After a very painful relegation, the fans pardoned the team at the beginning of the season. More members and more subscribers than in Primera. The message was clear. Seven days after the change of coach, the fans once again called for the board’s resignation on several occasions and whistled for their team at half-time.
One more day Espanyol crashed against expectations. Burgos was able to dominate the game on the counterattack and deliver the blows it needed while the blue and white team showed a worrying ineffectiveness with the ball. Bolo’s team advanced in a transition with only two men. Edu Espiau beat Calero and gave way back for Appin to score with a cross shot with his left foot. The first cries against the directive appeared there.
Espanyol’s reaction came through a sterile possession that the fans even chanted “olés” in an ironic way in the second half. Despite being completely harmless, Burgos lent a hand to their rival. The winger Martín gave way back and the center back thought the ball was going towards the goalkeeper. That’s where Braithwaite appeared more ready to pick up the ball and beat Caro with a low cross shot. The Burgos team was anticipating Christmas gifts.
What came next was once again Espanyol without judgment or speed to surprise a well-established defense with five men. Except for the goal, the parakeet team did not generate a single chance and, on the brink of half-time, another new blow came. Grego finished off a corner in front of Keidi Bare in a practiced play and made the second, with which the stands once again showed their anger, now against the team.
In the second half it was Burgos that started in charge. In fact, new errors by the local defense came close to costing them the third. Curro finished a shot high after a bad pass from Calero. Ramis reacted by introducing Keita Baldé. And the accumulation of forwards bore fruit in a corner. Sergi Gómez, released, scored the equalizer when Espanyol least deserved it. But that is this team, which suddenly, and with the support of the stands, accelerated in the final stretch taking many risks.
However, the pause and the criterion belonged to Burgos, who made the third a well-woven play that concluded with a shot at Curro’s far post. The chants against the directive were already unanimous.
At the worst moment for the parakeet team, Puado, the team’s top scorer, appeared to rescue a point and spice things up at the end. That ecstasy did not help to achieve victory.
Three years ago, Espanyol finished the first round with 42 points. Today he is 34. Then he was the leader, today he is in the playoff, but the stench that this team exudes today is not that of the First Division
