ESPANYOL-OSASUNA | Osasuna walks in Cornellà at the cost of a mediocre Espanyol

What 2021 was going to be better than 2020 has become a mantra that, if society is already in charge of denying, in football both Espanyol as Osasuna shake their heads. The parakeets, immersed in the fight for return from Second, which from now on will be more than ever the single objective. And the reddish, penultimate in First but at least with the joy, however ephemeral, of passing rounds in the Cup. The sixteenth was a authentic walk for those of Jagoba Arrasate, executioners last season of the parrots in LaLiga, and that they needed very little because Espanyol put them a red carpet, or red. All the facilities in the world.

It gave a glimpse of Espanyol's call for the Cup. The line-up –with an understandable group management by Vicente Moreno, also with a incomprehensible Vargas– that there was no excess, but good. And the performance on turf from the first minute, what interest could not be more focused on LaLiga. A dichotomy that not even the least common tried to straighten out. And that Arrasate presented a team also truffled with substitutes, perhaps superiors, perhaps more motivated, and with the Manu Sánchez debut, on loan from Atlético.

The proof is that Osasuna only needed nine minutes for the tie to go down. The time it took David López, already a victim of the rojillos in last year's lethal commitments – which sentenced the parakeet descent – to lose a ball that Javi Martínez took advantage of a thousand wonders to shoot at the far post and beat, for the first time since he arrived at Espanyol, Oier. Another defensive mess was about to mean Budimir's goal shortly after. AND David tried to redeem himself with a control and header that Juan Pérez saved.

But it was on the verge of half an hour when Espanyol confirmed that it was not his day, well that he is a very good mouse head in Second but is still not at the level of the lion's tail that led him to go down in First. An exrojillo, Fran Mérida, measured the times wrong when serving a corner, a rehearsed action that caught Óscar Gil off guard, counterfoot, already folding, so he failed to finish off on the balcony of the area and gave the ball. It took oil with an unusual speed Roncaglia, experienced, who took a career as energetic as his pass with the outside to Barja to score, almost at pleasure, the 0-2.

He had no choice to Vicente Moreno to resort to his heavy weights And he did it, neither short nor lazy, at once in the 53rd minute. Raúl de Tomás, Embarba and Darder entered, but the first thing that was about to happen was Osasuna's 0-3, which Enric Gallego forgave in a header that went high. It is true that from now on the forces were equalized, with a shot from Wu Lei at the near post that almost slipped in and especially after the irruption of Nico Melamed and after a free kick from De Tomás directly to the post.

But Espanyol was never squeezed enough to get close on the scoreboard, let alone to defeat the tie and go round. There are ways and ways to forget about the Cup, and Espanyol chose the gray one. Osasuna passes: winning is never enough.