1-1: Cold point
Espanyol starts the year with a draw against Deportivo
The three kings didn’t leave us a victory in the first match of the year. Espanyol draw against Deportivo de la Coruña in a match that didn’t start very well for the locals. Borges scored after a corner kick but soon Gerard made the draw. Jurado, in the las minute, hit the post in an excellent free kick that could have been the victory for Espanyol.
Quique Sánchez Flores was forced again to make some changes in the line up to play the first match of the year 2017. Roberto Jiménez was again on goal because Diego López’s injury and Salva Sevilla had another opportunity in the midfield. Víctor Sánchez, who had some muscular problems, finally was able to play against Deportivo de la Coruña.
After the defeat against Alcorcón, Espanyol wanted to start well the year. The team seem to feel comfortable with the ball, specially, when Jurado, Piatti and Aarón began to combine. From the left, the locals had their best chances with two shoots from Piatti that went out. Quique’s boys were doing well against a team that has improve in the last weeks. However, after a good start the match enter in a new phase were both teams didn’t do as well as in the beginning. It looked that they could only score in a corner or a free kick but none of the find the way to get in front of the scoreboard. The match need it a change.
The second half started with another rhythm and the two teams had clear chances to score. The first one was Jurado that didn’t take advantage of a good pass from Gerard. Deportivo answered with an excellent shot of Borges that hit the post. Espanyol continued attacking and gorced Tyton to show his best skills. The goalkeeper made two good saves and avoid Piatti and Jurado from scoring. The match seemed to go in a better way for the locals. But when it looked that the goal was going to arrive, Deportivo scored the first one in a gooh header by Borges that Roberto couldn’t stop.
Things were not going well but fortunately Espanyol draw the match a few minutes after. Gerard was very clever and scored after a mistake from Sidnei. In the last minute, Jurado hit the post with an excellent free kick that could have been the goal of victory.