Espanyol 0-2 Sevilla; “It’s been a long time coming”

By: Anthony | February 16th, 2009

Oh how nice it is to see happy faces, especially since there haven’t been many lately. It truly has been a long time coming, but hey, we finally got a well deserved win. Jesús Navas, Frédéric Kanouté, and Andrés Palop got the job done as we hopefully got our season back on track.

Going into the match Jiménez and co. knew that it really was make or break, the recent string of poor results couldn’t continue or even despite Del Nido’s confidence, he would have seen the axe. The players didn’t disappoint though, in a game where both teams crucially needed a win for two totally different reasons, we’re the only one’s that came out of it with the three valuable points.

The game started with a lot of scrappy play and both teams had some decent chances, Espanyol with the better as Nene put in a perfect low cross only for Luís Garcia to pathetically touch it into the hands of Palop, he knew it too as he kicked the goal post in utter disgust. Shortly after it was us on the attack as Romaric his a rare bullet on target but only for Kameni to parry it away. Again though the second best wing-striker combination of the match, Nene and Luís Garcia linked up when the Brazilian International send another perfect low cross only for Garcia to underestimate it thinking one of our defenders was going to get it first, then surprised it got through he attempted to slide and tap it in but by then it was too late as the ball rolled out for a goal kick. It was then the co-man of the match’s turn to try his luck as Navas out-muscled Sergio Sánchez for a 50/50 ball in the Espanyol box but smashed his attempt wide of Kameni’s goal.

The first half ended in a 0-0 draw which was fair considering both teams had equal opportunities but missed some easy chances. Unfortunately this wasn’t good enough for either side as Espanyol was staring relegation in the face especially since Mallorca picked up a victory yesterday meaning they were now rooted at the bottom of the table and we needed a win to stay in our Champions League spot and for Jiménez to stay employed.

At the start of the second half things didn’t change as Nene made one of his several dangerous runs down the left flank only to send it into Garcia who once again shot it right into the arms of Palop. Navas then tried his luck by sending in a low cross to Renato who tried a slight flick over a diving Kameni only for the Cameroon International to get a foot on it and send it out for a corner.

Then it was a moment of madness for the usually steady Andrés Palop who strangely punched out a Nene cross to Espanyol striker Coro who was sitting ready to pounce, he took a couple steps and smashed it on goal only for David Prieto to clear it off the line and on the strikers second attempt he sent it embarrassingly wide of the goal. What a relief as I really thought that could have been the game right there and considering our luck of late (more like lack of) I’m really surprised it didn’t happen.

The game took a turn for our betterment as Lola committed a stupid foul on Diego Capel which he was then awarded his second yellow card of the match resulting in his sending off. Lately we’ve seen this situation far too often where we’ve been a man up and still either lost or drawn the game, I could see the exact same thing happening yesterday.

Adriano was then substituted in for Fernando Navarro as Jiménez looked to add more offensive ability to our side who were looking to take advantage of our extra man. It didn’t take long for Adriano to make an impact either as he sprinted down the left wing beating his man and putting a perfect cross in for Renato who smashed his header against the post of Kameni, that basically summed up most of our night – terribly unlucky. Romaric then had the same poor luck as he hit a shot off the same post, I really though that the game wasn’t meant to fall in our favour.

Just when I once again for the fourth time in as many weeks gave up all hope for a victory Jesús Navas broke down the right flank and unselfishly spotted Kanouté at the top of the box, dished it off perfectly and big Freddie smashed it low into the goal past Kameni who was more than upset with his defense’s poor marking. A few minutes later it was the dangerous combo of Navas and Kanouté at work again when Jesús did a little cheeky flick over with the ball as the Espanyol defender came at him, put his head up and spotted the big Malian striker who smashed it emphatically into the goal knowing that the game was all over and we were now heading back to Nervión with three important points.

Sevilla Atlético boys Diego Perotti and José Carlos both made their debuts for the first team and looked livelier than most of our players if I’m being honest. Although they didn’t play long in the match they played with intensity making smart runs and their quick movement threw off the Espanyol defenders. It would be good to see them in some of the upcoming fixtures even if it’s only for a brief few minutes. Young Finnish phenomenon Pukki was on the bench as well but did not see any action.

Top Player(s)
Without a doubt Kanouté who smashed in two goals to lead us to our first league victory in a month and hopefully boost our confidence going into next week’s exciting battle against a strong Atlético Madrid side. But the former Tottenham man couldn’t have done it alone as his partner in crime Jesús Navas deserves just as much credit for making the intelligent runs he always seems to do and setting him up twice, with the greatest of ease. Credit needs to be given where credit is due as our infamous keeper Andrés Palop stopped Luís Garcia at point blank on several occasions and despite his horrible mixup on Nene’s cross he definitely redeemed himself with some vital stops. We’ll also give this honour to David Prieto who cleared Coro’s bullet off the line when Palop screwed up and in turn shifted the momentum in our favour, well done kiddo.

Flop Player(s)
Colombian International Aquivaldo Mosquera despite his impressive play in recent weeks had an absolutely abysmal match last night as Nene made minced meat out of him on several occasions, in general he was just too slow on and off the ball. Renato also once again failed to impress as its quite obviously he’s a poor excuse for a second striker or a centre forward. He lacks the pace and also the skill at times and missed a perfect chance to redeem himself when he hit Adriano’s corner off the post resulting in him probably being one of the worst performers last night.

This victory keeps us in third place still nine points behind Real Madrid, a massive nineteen behind Barça, and also now three ahead of Valencia and Villarreal following their draws with Málaga and Racing Santander respectively. This sees us in a decent position especially for a team that has struggled of late, there’s a long way to go in the season and anything can still happen.

We now travel back to Nervión to prepare for next Saturday’s match against Atlético Madrid who lost ground on us this week drawing a perseverant Getafe side, 1-1. Hopefully that will put a slight dent in their confidence and hopefully we will also be thinking about how they robbed us of that final Champions League spot last year to make us come out flying and push further ahead of Valencia and co.