Narration and statistics This is how we live the match
LaLiga This is the classification
The cutter The luck of the stingy Real Madrid
A team is much more than a sum of names.
This Espanyol showed it that Diego Martínez sews with scraps, although he even ended up without a goalkeeper.
There they have a good coach.
After being subdued by an authoritarian Madrid, he reacted with a plan and a heart to demand the best from the champion, and Benzema always provides the best.
[Narration and stats: 1-3]
The coach in the vest is another and he is not a man of frivolity.
Ancelotti is a classic, and classics don't like radical changes.
Rotations are.
He announces them as necessary, but they are not to his liking.
In Cornellà, an intense place, the jousts.
He knew why.
Rüdiger appeared to move Alaba to the wing, as well as Lucas Vázquez on the right.
The rest, those who, today, would play a classic.
Madrid came on hard because this is a tough team, whose quality is coupled with a spectacular physical level.
The arrival of the German center-back or Tchouaméni accentuated it, despite the departure of Casemiro.
That Valverde stayed in the eleven, also the day Rodrygo returned, has a lot to do with it.
The Brazilian jumped onto the field, along with Camavinga, when something more was needed against a rival more uncomfortable than expected.
It is an authoritarian Madrid in the dispute, with the offensive resources that Vinicius and Benzema offer, in the overflow or association, and fearsome from set pieces.
But he is not invulnerable, as an uninhibited Espanyol showed.
As he already showed in Granada, Diego Martínez knows what he is doing.
With what little they have left him and Raúl de Tomás in no man's land, he was able to put up a fight against Madrid.
Times of need are also times of opportunity and the young Rubén Sánchez is going strong for it, going from a subsidiary of the bunch to winning duels against Madrid footballers, like a briefcase that makes moons in leathers.
Casemiro's departure has not scared Tchouaméni.
On the contrary.
If in Vigo he already had a share in the goals, in Cornellà he was capital in the first.
He threw a wall in three quarters and leaked a pass into space looking down the lane, à la Laudrup.
Vinicius attacked him like a cat and extended the ball diagonally to fool Lecomte.
It was no coincidence that Tchoauméni was in that place, not at all.
The Frenchman spent a good part of the game in the inside position, Modric's own, in a loose version of the Croatian, while Kroos took a step back.
He can do things that Casemiro did, and it will be necessary, but he has more flight and an imposing physique.
The depth and impudence of Vinicius are such that Madrid are constantly looking for him.
His offensive weight grows, especially when it is necessary to overcome pieces in a very retracted defense, like the one Diego Martínez had.
Vinicius submitted Óscar Gil, who was brave in the duel, provoked a save from Lecomte and shot slightly high in another shot, in addition to the goal scored in the first half.
He engulfed the danger of Madrid, perhaps too much.
Madrid lacked other options to have confirmed an overwhelming dominance on the scoreboard for half an hour.
Espanyol came out of his cave to avoid the bombardment and found himself in the stretch.
Darder decided, Rubén pushed and Joselu scored after forcing Courtois and the rejection of the ball favored him.
The tie did not make him return to the starting point.
Quite the contrary.
He accepted the exchange of blows after the break.
Courtois took out his best hand to finish off Joselu and Lecomte stopped Benzema's shot, already connected, after Ancelotti put Rodrygo and Camavinga on the field.
Two agitators to open the field, to shake it.
Camavinga did it the first time, alone, depository of a wild football.
In his best charge, the Frenchman connected with Benzema in a very slight offside.
At the next assist, this time from the Brazilian, Benzema was a step behind, in just the right place to hold the champion's strike almost to the limit.
Further, he added another comic goal, without a barrier in the foul and without a goalkeeper due to Lecomte's expulsion.
Espanyol did not deserve that ending.
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