Espanyol is not Espanyol if it does not suffer. This team has not coexisted well with the obligation to win this season, as every time it has needed victory against an affordable rival it has stumbled over its own traps. Something similar happened against Albacete, who took the lead on the scoreboard and came close to a tie in the final minutes, when they played with one more due to the expulsion of Álvaro Aguado. González’s team passed the test due to the inspiration of Jofre, key with a goal and an assist, and will go to Leganés next Friday second, in direct promotion positions, and with the option of staying just one point behind the leader. [See the Hypermotion League standings].
Manolo González fulfilled his threat and opted for a very offensive team, possibly the one that all parakeet fans with a coach in them would have lined up against the penultimate classified team. But although Aguado and Melamed appeared together for the first time in the eleven, football nirvana did not appear in Cornellà. Accumulating talented players did not help the team to dominate the game, but rather to lose balance and ability to press in the middle.
Albacete gave a real lesson in the game in the first 20 minutes and if they did not end the duel it was due to a lack of success. Before the fifth minute Agus Medina sent the visitors’ first big chance to limbo. It wasn’t the first time, but it was the second time. Fuster left Quiles alone in front of Joan García, who deflected the ball into the goal inside the small area. The parakeet players arrived late to everything, to the despair of a crowd that had the best entry of the season.
After the goal, an exchange of blows began from which Espanyol benefited. Puado and Fuster tried from outside the area. And before the quarter-hour mark, Jofre scored one of the goals of the season with a shot from the edge of the area, after a short corner, which slipped into Vaclik’s corner.
From there Espanyol grew in aggressiveness to equalize the duel. Given Melamed’s lack of appetite, perhaps under pressure after learning this week that he will play for Almería next year, it was Aguado who advanced his position to make his team a protagonist. The second half began as it ended as the first, with shots from Fuster and heroic interventions from Joan García, key once again.
González was looking for solutions on the bench when Jofre once again worked magic to filter a ball towards Melamed, who beat Vaclik with a cross shot to redeem himself. The parakeet team wanted more and continued to press, in a version more similar to what González wants for the Espanyol, but shortly after a mistimed tackle by Aguado on Fuster cost him the red card and the suffering returned to Cornellà, who has already learned that from here until the end of the season nothing will be easy.
Espanyol: J. García, El Hilali, V. Ruiz, Cabrera, Brian Oliván, Gragera, Aguado, Melamed (Keidi Bare 66), Jofre (Sergi Gómez 82), Puado (Pere Milla 87) and Braithwaite (Gastón Vallés 87).
Coach: Manolo González.
Albacete: Vaclik, Álvaro (Escriche 71), Djetei (Marchán 80), Glauder, Alonso, Olaetxea (Shashoua 87), Medina, Pacheco (Isaac 71), Fuster, Fidel, Quiles (Higinio 80). Entr.: Alberto González.
Estadio: Stage Front (23,233 espect.)
Referee: De la Fuente Ramos (Castilian-Leonese c.). Cards: Direct red for Aguado (64). Yellows for Melamed, Glauder, Alonso, Puado, Quiles.
Goals: 0-1. Quiles (9). 1-1 Jofre (14). 2-1 Melamed (53).
