'Killing the matches' has become Espanyol's mantra in this trance for LaLiga SmartBank after the draw in Fuenlabrada in the final moments (1-1) and losing in five minutes against Girona (1-2). In both games, the parakeet team went ahead and seemed to have the game under control, as Vicente Moreno himself repeated in the press room. But “on the wire”, as the technician stressed, these things can happen.
For Raúl de Tomás, author of the eighth of both the course and again after Adrián Embarba, the diagnosis is clear, as he first ventured in Gol after the match: “We lost because we took a step back. You have to go with more faith to score second”. A statement that he later explained in more detail on Espanyol TV: “In the second part we have backed down and we have caused them to come up. In the end it is reality, that is why we lost, because we have taken a step backwards. They have been better at the end, we accumulated a defeat at home and now let's think about Leganés “.
The truth is that the last two games leave an equivocal residue, because in the 13 matches played, Espanyol was ahead on the scoreboard in ten of them and in five they managed to do both peace of mind. It happened before Albacete (3-0), Oviedo (0-2), Mirandés (2-0), Ponferradina (2-0), Malaga (0-3). In the remaining five, the parrots took the game in Sabadell (0-1), against Alcorcón (1-0) and Lugo (2-1) with some suffering, while Fuenlabrada and Girona mark the exception by not winning.
Espanyol, which alternates between different heights when defending and has no qualms about leaving the initiative to the rival, had chances in the last two games to score that second goal. In Fuenlabrada, Espanyol made it 0-1 in their first shot on goal, the work of Raúl de Tomás. Then he had up to eight more unsuccessful pitches. Against Girona, possession changed sides and after RdT's goal the perico team He only shot three times on goal in 50 minutes, for seven in the first 40.