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2-0: Lethal attack

Espanyol grows during the match and deserves better luck in the second half

Espanyol left empty the Bernabéu extending a historical streak that shows the abyss that has settled between both teams, corroborated even more by their budgets. Still, the white and blue team grew during the match and deserved better luck in the second half of the game, supported on a number of occasions.

But the match had previous ingredients that made it exceptional for all the worrying news coming from Catalonia. It did not matter. It had to be normal. As if nothing happened, as if we were in full preseason and had to complete the process. Head and heart in Barcelona, legs and stomach at the Santiago Bernabéu for the show to continue, including the typhus of the stands, the loudspeaker and aerial cameras. Show, show, show...

Madrid where looking for a high rhythm and went all out with the intention of closing the record of his first home win in a sigh. Isco sneaked into the blue-and-white defence after 25 seconds but Pau made a great save. The goalkeeper from Olot tempered and frustrated the clear occasion with an outstanding save. Madrid wanted to win the most meters of the field and surrounded the white and blue who had only the resource to play fast enough to organize a counter attack that was ineffective.

Pau returned to show his class inthe first half with another splendid save after a header by Sergio Ramos, but could not do anything a few minutes later, when Isco came back and beat him down. Espanyol had a hard time recovering because they could not find any gaps to attack. Only in the first half Gerard tried Navas in a comfortable shot for the Madrid goalkeeper and repeated shortly after with a more forceful kick that repelled the post.

Quique made changes in the break and the team began to have more presence in attack. It was another, with more presence before Navas. The two newly incorporated created the first occasions. Marc Navarro crashed the ball into the body of Navas and shortly after Sergio García hit head high slightly. In any case, during those minutes Espanyol proved that he had found another scenario and deserved, due to the number of occasions generated, to have another score. They were falling one behind the other, but a steal in the center of the field propitiated a counterattack and, again Isco, overcame Pau.