Back

1-0: Conditioned

An early goal from Santos, an expulsion for Hermoso and a tough Alavés knock down Espanyol

The match started as Des Biasi wished. And as Quique hated. The first acceleration was for the home team, full of revolutions. Santos just needed 48 seconds to finish off a corner kick. The 1-0 modified everything.

The Espanyol tried to recompose itself and create a new match. But neither Baptistato, on two good occasions, nor Gerard, could overcome the hard defence of Alavés.

Before finishing the first half, the referee showed the second yellow card to Mario Hermoso after jumping, again, with his elbows. The match became very difficult for the Catalans.

In the second half, Quique Sánchez Flores modified the system, playing with three defences to try to correct the development of the game. Even though Alavés stopped the match constantly. Gerard and Baptistao, with two shots from outside the area, almost scored.

The game was still very hard and Espanyol could not find spaces. The blue and whites could not equal in Mendizorroza after a difficult game.