Espanyol heads to the Second Division

Only a miracle would save Espanyol from relegating to Segunda, who after losing at Villamarín is eight points behind the 17th with just seven days ahead and a terrifying schedule that includes visits to Valdebebas, San Sebastián and the Camp Nou. The team of Abelardo almost signed his death sentence in an exercise of complete impotence, against a Betis who had a new coach, Alexis, who played little and who will play even less from now on, 37 points should be enough to save already. A shot from point-blank range of Wu Lei reaching the discount, which seemed impossible to miss but crashed into goalkeeper Joel, staged the parrot misfortune.

Eibar's victory against Valencia almost doubled the end-of-game airs for Espanyol, decimated in defense by injuries (without Cabrera or Bernardo) and lacking effective forces, between technical decisions and other matters. With De Tomás at least on the bench, it was Campuzano who stood before Joel three minutes after a pass from Pedrosa, but too forced. The Barcelona attacker was very active despite having played only 15 minutes, in the Cup, in this 2020.

Revamped by a line of three centrals and a defensive pivot ahead, a priori more defensive, Alexis' first Betis created his scant danger of the first half more from visiting fear than from a shallow depth, in several lateral centers that lagged behind Blue and Whites failed to clear. The clearest opportunity of the first half was Calleri when it came to the break. The Argentine faced the goal alone, fell asleep and Mandi took the shot in extremis.

But this Espanyol is knocked down by a breeze. It was enough a corner well launched by Canales at the near post as soon as the second half began for Bartra to get up early to a little intense Iturraspe, who did not jump, and put the header 1-0 (47 '). Campuzano tried to react in a good individual play but his shot went to the side of the net. Not even the triple change to electroshock mode that included Abelardo, with Wu Lei, Melendo and De Tomás in one fell swoop, reactivated the parakeet team, unable to even create danger while Betis was the closest to the goal with shots from Canales and Fekir. With everything, The Chinese striker had a tie in his boots that alone would have alleviated little, but which would have at least given something of a hope that is nowhere to be seen.