Sergi Darder, the modern prophet of Espanyolism, made a good addition to a very disappointing match for the blue and white team against Elche, bottom of the League. Artà’s is the only explanation for a crucial victory for the team’s survival. Because the reality is that Espanyol was worse and deserved to lose to a team practically liquidated in the First Division. Never, not even when he played with one more man in the last minutes due to the expulsion of Carmona, did he honor the three points. And that should be a matter of deep concern for Diego Martínez. But football allied this time with Espanyol and with Darder, and his shot from the front slipped into the right corner of Edgar Badía’s goal, to the delight of the 500 parakeet fans who had traveled to Elche. With this, the jinx that persecuted Sergi Gómez, who accumulated 30 consecutive games without winning a game, is broken.
With up to seven casualties, most of them in defense, Espanyol arrived at Martínez Valero. This circumstance forced Diego Martínez to protect himself with an improvised line of five in which he included Gragera and Brian Oliván. The absence of the three central defenders most used by the coach this season, César Montes, Cabrera and Calero, completely conditioned the duel. The parakeet team suffered both from set pieces and static. And only his rival’s lack of success allowed him to extend an almost agonizing sense of survival until the end. Martínez also granted ownership to Pacheco, who was the best on the team. The man from Vigo already has a guaranteed goalkeeper under the sticks. And one less problem.
Espanyol was visiting a rival who had conceded a goal in every game in this League. And the explanation for that dramatic statistic came to light very soon. During the first quarter of an hour the blue and white team had three clear chances, but neither Puado, nor Braithwaite, nor Denis Suárez, without a goalkeeper in between, found the goal.
That beginning was a mirage, because after fifteen minutes the locals delved into the parakeet wound: the set piece. In the same play Mascarell and Ponce were about to score. And only the good placement of Pacheco allowed to repel the danger.
As the game calmed down, Espanyol suffered more, both with and without the ball. He was no longer able to visit the rival area and lost every duel. Before the break Ponce was able to score after an error by Gragera, slow and not very forceful on the mark.
In the second half the dynamics of local dominance became more acute. Espanyol was taking steps backwards and only in the counterattack could they feed the hope of victory. Puado and Braithwaite were able to create a quick combination, but the Catalan’s shot went wide. Little else was known about the parakeet team in attack, while the figure of Pacheco grew more and more behind.
The goalkeeper had much more work in the second act. In too many moments the parakeet defense became the cabin of the Marx brothers, but there was always the local from Badajoz to weather the storm. Martínez was conservative and withdrew Puado and Denis Suárez. Given the casualties, not a shred of ambition. He considered the tie in the field of the bottom team as good. But the expulsion of Carmona ten minutes from the end forced him to take a step forward. Even so, Espanyol disappointed until Darder appeared to pull another impossible trick out of his hat and put this team into orbit (24 points), which advances several positions and receives a great breath of air.
0 – Elche: Edgar Badia; Palacios, Roco, Magallán (Bigas, min. 46), Carmona, Gumbau (Gonzalo Verdú, min. 90), Mascarell, Fidel (Josan, min. 88), Clerc, Ezequiel Ponce (Nteka, min. 75) and Lucas Boyé .
1 – Spanish: Pacheco; Óscar Gil (Nico Melamed, min. 82), Sergi Gómez, Gragera, Oliván (Simo, min. 77); Vini Souza, Darder, Denis Suárez (Edu Expósito, min. 77), Rubén (Pierre Gabriel, min. 64), Puado (Aleix Vidal, min. 64) and Braithwaite.
Goal: 0-1, min.92 : Darder.
Referee: Del Cerro Grande (Madrid Committee). He showed yellow cards to Óscar Gil, Edu Expósito and Oliván for Espanyol, and to Carmona, from Elche, twice for which he was sent off in the 81st minute.
Incidents: Match corresponding to the twenty-second day of the Santander League played at the Martínez Valero stadium in Elche before 18,963 spectators. Before the match began, a minute’s silence was observed in memory of the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria and of Francisco Rodríguez Campoy, ‘Rodri’, an Elche player for six seasons in the 1960s and who was part of the team that promoted to the First Division for the first time. The player Fidel received a commemorative shirt for his 200 official matches.
