Espanyol's tribute to Lucky Luke

BarcelonaIf Espanyol is close to survival with six games left in La Liga, it's largely thanks to having become the team with the best shooting in Europe. And that's no exaggeration. Manolo González's men are the most accurate shooters in Europe's top five leagues. They are the team that needs to shoot the fewest times on target to find the back of the net: they score a goal every 2.34 shots on target. They narrowly surpass Newcastle United (2.35) and two Champions League semi-finalists, Inter Milan (2.38) and Barça (2.44), who have the same ratio as Borussia Dortmund.

The Blue and Whites have become the Lucky Luke of the major continental domestic championships. Especially in the second half of the season, they've become a team that usually shoots first—they've done so in six of their last seven away games—and, above all, requires very few attempts to score. The surprising thing is that they have the fewest shots on goal in La Liga (82). What many would consider a weakness is simply an anecdote for this Espanyol side, since they optimize the few chances they create better than anyone. And that's despite the fact that the three forwards who were supposed to replace Braithwaite in the summer—Cheddira, Veliz, and Cardona—have only scored three La Liga goals, one each.

The second half of the season's matches are a prime example. Espanyol have only had more than four shots in one of their thirteen matches, in Vallecas, where they scored four goals with seven shots on target. Against Girona, Athletic Club, and Valladolid, he completed four shots on goal in each of these matches. But he got even more out of his three against Valencia, Getafe, and Celta Vigo: he earned seven points out of a possible nine by scoring four goals with nine shots. Against Alavés and Real Madrid, he collected all six points possible after scoring one goal with two shots on target in each match. He also managed to earn a point against Atlético Madrid and Sevilla, scoring with his only shot on target. In his only defeats this season, against Real Sociedad and Mallorca, he had one and zero shots on target, respectively.

Puado and Roberto, two of the most accurate shooters in the League

If there are two players who perfectly embody the spirit of fast and precise gunslingers, they are, without a doubt, the current blue and white attacking duo: Roberto Fernández and Javi Puado. The Andalusian striker only needed seven shots to score five. high-value goals. 1.4 goals per shot. In fact, he's scored in four of the five matches he's shot on goal. He's only missed two shots on target, one against Rayo Vallecano and the other against Valencia.

The Barcelona striker isn't short either: He has scored 11 goals with only 19 attempts. That is, he scores a goal every 1.72 attempts. There are only six players in the entire League with at least ten goals who need fewer than two shots to find the net. The best in this area is Athletic's Sancet (1.33 shots per goal). He is followed by Budimir (1.61) and Ayoze (1.64). All of them have more than 14 goals scored. Behind Puado are Barça's Lewandowski (1.8) and Kike García (1.91), the veteran Alavés striker whose contract expires this summer and who is on Espanyol's radar. Puado and Roberto significantly improve the accuracy of other stars such as Vinícius Jr. (2.36), Julián Álvarez (2.42), Raphinha (2.6), and Mbappé (3.13). A La Liga attacking duo that Espanyol will try to retain this summer.