Spanish is on its way to the precipice

Cornellá de LlobregatEspanyol has hell at its doorstep. The Manolo González team has accumulated 16 games without a win, also unable to win at home against the second-to-last placed team, a Levante that took a draw from Barcelona (0-0). That's six points out of 48 for a team that dreamed of Europe and now lives with fear in its body: the ghost of the third relegation in six years is very present in Cornellà-El Prat. Last night, it was evident on the faces of the fans as they left the stadium and also of the players, who are not the same as four months ago. Despite a five-point margin over the red zone, Espanyol looks very bad and cannot find the therapeutic win to fix its problem, which at this point is more mental than footballing. And on Sunday, they host Real Madrid.

Although he denied it, the match was a final for Espanyol and Manolo González, who has gone from being undisputed to being quite questioned: 15 winless matchdays is something almost no coach endures. One of the causes that explain the blue-and-white team's fall, which ended 2025 very close to the Champions League, is defensive fragility. It used to be a wall, and now, with very little, it trembles; yesterday, Levante only needed a through ball to Víctor García to get him alone in front of Marko Dmitrovic. The Serbian prevented the goal with a miraculous hand. It was just minute 6.

Fear of making a mistake

Ten minutes later, the first whistles began to be heard in Cornellà-El Prat. Football is a state of mind and the Espanyol players, who ended up devastated on Rayo's field, have had a confidence problem for a long time. And these nerves are transferred to the fan, also angry with the constant time-wasting of a Levante, revived after two consecutive victories, who was looking for exactly that: to despair a mentally weak rival forced to win the match, but very afraid of making mistakes.

The spirits of the more than 25,000 spectators who came to suffer at the RCDE Stadium changed with two shots from Ngonge, a novelty in the starting eleven, which came close to scoring. He was offside, but the last one hit the post. And that encouraged an Espanyol, flat and insistent, for whom the first half went by too quickly. Nor is it that they had made too many merits to open the scoring.

Manolo brought in Roberto and Dolan to maintain the spark in attack. Shortly before, Pere Milla had had the best chance until then, with a shot inside the box that a rival defender thwarted at the last moment. A goal was already being sung, which came close for Roberto, but which did not end up finding Espanyol, imprecise and rushed, and who saw Pol Lozano sent off in the final moments. With two saving stops from Etta Eyong, Dmitrovic, who saw how the last shot of the match hit his crossbar, saved a point for a team that carries a too heavy burden that threatens to sink it if it doesn't win soon. Yesterday was not the day either.