It failed him – if fate did not want it that way to make the game more epic – that completion to a 70-meter kickback, born in a corner against, and in which the whole stadium accompanied him so that he tried unsuccessfully to beat Thibaut Courtois. He sent out his only shot of the match, but Sergi Darder demonstrated against Real Madrid, as before in many other games, that in the best version of Espanyol everything starts with him.
The midfielder gave a recital in the center of the campor. Of his boots, and of that characteristic turn on himself, the action of the first goal had already arisen, on a pass to Aleix Vidal on the right wing. Only one of the 33 he gave, of which he guessed 30 (a high 90.9 percent, well above the team average). But the most striking fact is that 21 of those passes were delivered in the opposite field; and there, where the defenses do not give an inch and the pressure does not allow us to think, he did not make a mistake: one hundred percent correct.
LaLiga Santander
* Data updated as of October 7, 2021
Obviously, your company requiring such precision, the youth squad lost to Real Madrid six times the ball. But its figures reveal another Darder that is rarely said, much more hidden but just as relevant to the group. A darder who starred four recoveries, who made two punts and participated in nine duels, of which he won six. Those plays, by fight, also started in him. Once again, when Darder smiles, Espanyol comes out the winner.