Roberto turns El Sadar into a white-and-blue arcadia

BarcelonaHistorically, El Sadar has been a cursed pitch for Espanyol, which in Pamplona began to mourn the 2020 relegation and where two decades ago it lost the Champions League. But in the last few months this has changed: last season it sealed its survival with a great triumph, and this afternoon, less than four months later, it won its first away game of the season there (0-2).

If it has achieved this, it is thanks to the effectiveness of Roberto Fernández, author of a brace and already one of the trendiest strikers in La Liga, and to the mistakes of Osasuna, very inconsistent in defense. The blue-and-whites have taken advantage of this to distance themselves from ghosts after three matchdays without a win, and they have added the first three points of a nine-point week –they play next Tuesday and Friday–. They already have seven.

A dazzling start

The good half hour that Marcos Fernández played against Sevilla, sealed with the equalizing goal, convinced Manolo González, who in Pamplona had him start for the first time. Riedel also started. The striker from Cambrils needed only a couple of minutes to confirm that the Galician coach's decision was the right one. This time he did not score, but he assisted Roberto Fernández, who scored his fourth goal of the season just as the parakeets' fifth match was beginning: a great pass back from the former Ceuta player and an opportune finish from the man from Puente Genil, who got ahead of his marker to make it 0-1.

A quarter of an hour later, and after the Croatian Ante Budimir missed two clear chances, Roberto scored his fifth goal of the season. This time it was enough for him to put his foot to a low cross from Omar El Hilali, who turned 23 today, because Alejandro Catena, incomprehensibly letting the ball go by, confused his goalkeeper and left him alone on the goal line. Half of the goal belongs to Edu Expósito, who found the full-back, also present in the action of the first, with a brilliant pass into space.

0-2 before the 20th minute. Even so, the start was not a bed of roses for Espanyol, who were soft in defense and suffered a lot with Osasuna's lateral crosses, as they were fed up with putting balls into the box. The Navarrese, who claimed a more than dubious penalty on Raúl García, also saw a goal disallowed that was not legal.

Direct play is the hallmark of their coach, Luis Miguel Ramis, an old acquaintance of Espanyol: he is the predecessor of Manolo González on the white-and-blue bench. Ramis surely left for the break furious after seeing his players make mistake after mistake, making life easier for an organized Espanyol that was able to reach Herrera's goal with just a few passes. Without playing a very brilliant match, with a little more precision they could have gone to the locker room with the job done.

Ramis's scolding did not have the expected effect on his players, at least with debutant Rockson Yeboah, who just as the second half started let a ball pass that allowed Dolan to be left alone in front of Sergio Herrera. The young Ghanaian center-back was lucky that his goalkeeper took the ball from the Englishman's feet when he was preparing to score the third.

The local coach made up to four changes before the 60th minute to try to hurt an Espanyol side that was much more in control of the situation than in the first half. Manolo's adjustments at halftime did work and his players were able to live more calmly until the last twenty minutes of the match. Then, Raúl Moro took on the burden of the team and, by way of diagonals and crosses into the box, surrounded the 'periquitos' inside their area. That said, without much danger for a Marko Dmitrovic who did not have to perform the miracle of every week to sustain the definitive 0-2, which confirms that El Sadar is an arcadia for Espanyol.