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3-1: Prestigious victory
Espanyol defeats Sevilla in a great match of the white and blue team
Espanyol has achieved the victory that the team need it to confirm that it is improving and can play as good as the best teams of the league. It is true that Pareja’s booking was clue for the develop of the match.
Espanyol started the second round of the league against Sevilla that arrived in a great moment with five consecutive victories. For the white and blue was a great opportunity to continue advancing in the table and confirming the good feelings showed a week ago in front Granada. For the first time in the season Quique Sánchez Flores was able to repeat the starting 11. With some important players out due to injuries as Baptistao o Víctor Sánchez, the manager didn’t have many options.
The match started great for Espanyol. In the first minute of the game Pareja fault Piatti in the area and the referee show him the red car and penalty for Espanyol. Reyes was the player in charge of transforming the penalty. The match couldn’t start better for the locals. Sampaoli made some movements and put Lenglet on the field. Meanhwhile, Jurado had a great opportunity to score the second of the match but Rico hold the ball easily. The game was looking well until Sevilla found a gap in Espanyol’s defence and got the draw thanks to another goal of Jovetic.
Espanyol didn’t feel comfortable and Sevilla did better during a lot of minutes. Despite playing with ten men, Sampaoli’s squad was able to put in trouble the local defence that had to do a great effort to keep the scoreboard as how it was. Espanyol was suffering until David López put the thing back to order with a long shot that Rico refused to corner. The last minutes of the first half were great. Gerard was close to score with a brilliant header that went out by a little. Who didn’t miss was Marc Navarro who scored his second goal for Espanyol.
Espanyol started the second half with a great opportunity for Gerard who was close to score. However, Sevilla tried again to push to draw the match and the white and blue team was forced to defence with a lot of concentration. The match went on with all to be decided in the final minutes. The good thing was that Espanyol, in the crucial minutes was more effective. Reyes hit the cross bar with a tremendous shot from outside the area but it was Gerard who finally got his prize after a fantastic match.