Espanyol has 88.8% options to go up this week

The moment is near. Sunday's win against Málaga (3-0) has finished throwing a dazzling light to the Second Division tunnel in which Espanyol plunged last summer. It is not that it has paved the way, it is that it goes downhill. To the point that the chances that the ascent is mathematical this next day, the thirty-eighth, are a spectacular 88.8 percent. The parrots have it in their hands, with 77 points in the absence of five games, by 63 from Almería and 62 from Leganés.

The accounts can no longer be clearer. If you score a single point, a draw on your visit to Real Zaragoza on Saturday at 6:15 p.m., Espanyol will become a First team Division for all intents and purposes. So a win, obviously, would also get him promotion. And what would happen in case of defeat? Well, even so, they could count on the chances of finishing the day as a top-flight team. It would depend on what the Almería on Friday, against Tenerife at the Heliodoro Rodríguez López (9:00 p.m.), and from Leganés in Vallecas against Rayo, on Monday (19:00).

If Espanyol lost against Zaragoza, I would need neither Almería nor Leganés to win their matches. That is it would be worth it not only with defeats but even with two draws. In other words, of the 27 combinations of results that can be given this next day in the matches of parakeets, indales and pepineros, Espanyol would only be left without direct promotion in three cases: victory for Leganés, Almería or both teams. Hence that 88.8 percent of the cases that would return to First in the absence of yet another four days.