Espanyol's leadership is born from the set piece

When everyone believed that Fran Mérida was going to hang the ball in the area, in a free kick thrown in three quarters of the field by Mirandés, Óscar Gil passed in front, stepped on it and let the midfielder take the option of advancing meters, shooting and mark. To surprise. Of getting the strategy right for the first time this season and to confirm that Vicente Moreno's Espanyol –and Dani Pendín, a specialist in this area– was born from set pieces. For the goals scored and for those he avoids receiving.

“In today's football, the set piece is very important. Many games are decided for that reason and we were right, “he underlines on the club's channels Merida, author of that first goal against the wild boars, who had his sentence with another goal arising from a free kick, the final 2-0, thrown by Adrián Embarba and whose rejection took advantage of Javi Puado. “We we put a lot of emphasis every week on set pieces, because we know that they can give points and games, and in the long run it makes the team continue to grow “, the youth squad congratulates.

With these two targets against Mirandés There are already four that Espanyol has scored from set pieces, since against Albacete and Oviedo converted two penalties at the feet of Embarba and Raúl de Tomás, respectively. Four out of nine, that is, almost half of his goals. And what is equally or more important: has not received any so much in that luck. The parakeet team accumulates up to ten players in their area in each corner or foul, especially if they are lateral, of their opponents. A solidarity that works.

In a category where defenses tend to command, strategy is highly decisive. Moreno and Pendín, a specialist in aerial game as a footballer -So much that it cost him a couple of skull fractures-, who put in that part of the game the bases of his two consecutive promotions with Mallorca, from Second B to First, and that they again observe the result of their work, which Last season did not quite bear fruit: the first goal of the vermilion from set pieces did not arrive until after 20 days, with the experts Salva Sevilla and Antonio Raíllo as protagonists.