The ‘Fort Knox’ of the Spanish

A unique fort. Neither in the worst scenarios nor against the most feared rivals. The Fort Knox RCDE Stadium remains unapproachable, only conquered by an Athletic from Madrid who needed 99 minutes to knock down a Homeric Espanyol, like the one who annihilated Real Sociedad this Sunday. The Blue and Whites have added 17 of the 24 points in their stadium and are already in the top ten. They walk through the league firm especially for the performance they get under the heat of their own even on cold afternoons like the one that fired in November football.

The contrasts. The Espanyol matches They are cooked over a low heat, like a hot broth that would have gone to ask the 20,000 parrots who came to his temple. A day marked by the act of vandalism of the Boixos Nois in those outskirts of Cornellà that contrasted with the blue and white solidarity donating food for families in need. A few prolegomena that gave way to a long game in which there was everything. Strong emotions in an RCDE Stadium used to sweating, suffering and winning.

Like in the derby. Until minute 15 of the game, Espanyol could not perform his first attack positional in rival field. Same that Barcelona a week before, Real Sociedad monopolized the ball and drowned the Blue and Whites under pressure at a start in which Vicente Moreno’s men didn’t even hit the ball when they regained possession. Also, as in the derby, the referee and VAR were protagonists, with that controversial action of the goal disallowed to Isaak after the play was preceded by the leg of Mateu Lahoz. According Iturralde González the goal is well disallowed, but the behavior of the referee on the play was wrong. So much so that he even admitted it. “He told us that maybe he was wrong,” says La Real.

The trident of the goal. But Espanyol cares little about those circumstances. Whether or not he enjoys the ball, has more or less space, feels cornered or liberated, in his stadium he manages the times, wins the duels and is convinced that, at some unexpected moment, the moment of the goal will come. So it was. After Puado’s chances, when the Real prowled more and more insistently the perica area, Morlanes recovered a ball, intelligently distributed to RdT that, open on the left, faced the Real side with an advantage. His strong, dry, crossed shot that Ramiro repelled reached a Yangel that, until that moment, had been everywhere, but without being noticed, omnipresent and at the same time invisible.

The emotions. That goal and that victory make RCDE Stadium at second strongest stadium of the championship. And, most importantly, it hooks on a hobby that, although it passes through different stadiums in 90 minutes, ends up being satiated with emotions and says goodbye with a smile. Isn’t that football?