Betis vs Espanyol: "Perico´s" revenge at Villamarín

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The 5^th journey of LaLiga let us an amazing match between Espanyol of Barcelona and Real Betis in Benito Villamarín. The team managed by Vicente Moreno arrived at the 5^th journey with only 1 point over the drop zone, so they needed to get some point if they wanted to move away of the drop zone. They, called “Pericos” too, didn’t meet the victory in LaLiga yet. In their last match they lost at the 99’, so they arrived enraged from the previous game.

Sevillian team, on the other hand, was in a quiet position, the 9^th one, but even so, getting the 3 points was important for Pellegrini’s squad. They came from a victory 1-2 in Los Cármenes  against Granada CF.

A very interesting match between these two squads was waiting us the Sunday 19 at 6 p.m.

Match summary:

The game started at the estimated hour in Benito Villamarín.

The local squad started playing strongly, and this pressing was about to be effective, because at the 2’, the defensive midfielder of Betis Williahm Carvalho shot to the net side, being very close to the 1^st goal. Only one minute later, Sevillian squad had another attempt, this time was a shoot to the crossbar of the young player Rodri Sanchez, after a serious loss of the “perician” squad in his own field. Two attempts in two minutes, Betis was about to score the first goal of the game, and Espanyol players were defending as they could. 

At 4’ Raúl de Tomás, the main striker of the squad of Barcelona, could score the first goal but his head shoot went over the goal. 

Having played only 7’ of the game, Victor Ruiz, the unique player of Betis who had played all the minutes in LaLiga until now, got injured. He was replaced by Edgar Gonzalez, who only 2’ later saw the first yellow card of the match. He committed a fault in the front of the area. This fault was kicked by Adrián Embarba, but the experienced goalkeeper Claudio Bravo could catch the ball without any problem.

The match was at the 16’ when Aleix Vidal, after a great pass of Raúl de Tomás, scored the first goal of the match and his first goal as “perician”. 0-1 for RCD Espanyol in Villamarín, after the good shoot of the left-winger of the blue and white squad. The first goal was a surprise for the match, because the team who had been attacking more was the Sevillian one. 

It happened nothing remarkable until 41’, when Adrià Pedrosa scored a goal in his own goal, so Betis tied the game. Bad luck for the Barcelonian team at Betis goal. Bad luck for Espanyol didn’t disappear, because eight minutes later the French midfielder Nabil Fekir scored another goal for Real Betis and put the 2-1 in the score. In few minutes Real Betis could go up in the score, and the team managed by Vicente Moreno was shocked after the two fast goals.

2^nd half started with a few changes in the Catalan squad, Morlanes and Melendo were substituted by Loren Morón and Keidi Bare. 

The first minutes Espanyol suffered the high pression of their rival, and Betis could score the third goal in several occasions, by they didn’t find the way. From minute 65 Espanyol started attacking more, since they needed a goal to tie the match. 

At 78’ it occurred an important event that could be determinant for the development of the end of the game. Pezzella, one of the Betis central-backs directly received a red card due to a strong entry to Aleix Vidal, the scorer of the first goal of Espanyol. From that moment Espanyol started attacking more and more, taking advantage of its numerical sale. Now the local squad was suffering the constant attacks of the visitant squad. 

Althought the Barcelonian squad had been disabled to find the goal, at 97’ Espanyol could finally score the so expected goal that all “pericos” were waiting all those minutes. Leandro Cabrera, central-back of the Catalan team, was the player who scored the goal, after a rebound of Betis.  

That so magnificent and exciting game ended 2-2, in a tragical ending for the local team, that lost 2 points in the last minute. Both teams got one point finally.

Post-match:

After the 5^th journey of LaLiga we can see how Espanyol has gone down some positions in the classification, being in the 16^th position with 3 points and only 2 of difference with Celta, team that delimits the drop zone. The following journey “pericos” are receiving Alaves at RCD Stadium, team who has not got any point in LaLiga yet. 

On the other hand, Real Betis has also gone down a few positions, now being in the 11^th place with 6 points, but they have more difference of points with the drop zone. They have 4 points of sale. In the next match they will visit Osasuna´s field, that now are 4 positions up with 2 points of advantage. 

So with this we end the 5^th journey of both squads, but remember that football continues and the following journeys we’ll have a lot of interesting matches and goals, all in one of the best leagues of the world, LaLiga. 

Real Madrid vs Celta, well deserved victory for "merengues"

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The 4th journey for both teams was played at the new Santiago Bernabéu, stadium that had been being rehabilitated during the year before. 

Carlo Ancelotti´ squad played for first time in one and half year in front of their fans. Due to the situation that we are passing with Covid-19, only a 40% of the stadium capacity could be filled up, so only 29.000 people could enjoy the match in the stadium.

If we analyzed the situation of both teams before the match, we could see that the team of Vigo has only got 1 of the last 9 points, being situated in the drop zone. On the other hand, Real Madrid got 7 of the 9 possible points, leading Laliga’s classification. Ancelotti´s team would fight to keep the lead position, meanwhile Celta would try to climb some positions from the drop zone.

Match summary:

The game was played Sunday 12^th of September at 9 p.m. We could see how Celta started pressuring at Real Madrid’s field, and it was not in vain because only 4 minutes after starting the match, the Galician striker Santi Mina could score to get ahead his team on the score.

After 20 minutes and many occasions of Real Madrid, “merengues” got the long-awaited goal to tie the score. 1-1 was then the provisional result, got by Karim Benzema, but the happiness wouldn’t stay longer because Celta scored only 6 minutes later. 1-2 was the score at finish of the first half in Santiago Bernabéu, with a Real Madrid without ideas to threat Celta’s area. 

2^nd half started with good news for the team of Madrid. At minute 46, the same striker of the first goal for Real Madrid, Benzema, scored again after an excellent cross of Miguel Gutierrez to upload the tie again in the score. Real Madrid was having again good feelings. In the next minutes, they could get ahead on the score with some dangerous shoots, but the goal came after a marvelous pass of Benzema to the young player Vinicius, who, calmly, entered in the area and finished the play like a world-class forward. “Vini” showed all the fans of Real Madrid that he had been improving for a long time his way to finish, fact that could be a key for “Vini” to become a much better winger. 

Minute 66 and Eden Hazard, who hadn’t done a good match, was substituted by one of the best young stars of the moment, Eduardo Camavinga. The French player had been trespassed the last day of the transfer market and came to Real Madrid as the candidate to be one of the best midfielders of the world in a few years. We can say that the young player didn’t start bad at his new team. After 6 minutes of his debut, he scored his first goal with the white t-shirt after an excellent ball driving of Luca Modric. 

Once another goal uploaded to score, Real Madrid slowed down the game´s pace. At minute 87, after a long run of Vinicius Jr and a great skill move, he provoked a penalty, in which Benzema could get his hat-trick and leave the stadium with the ball.

Post-match:

The match would finish with this result, 5-2, in a fixture in which Real Madrid started with several problems but as the time ran, “merengues” were able to sentence the match thanks to their quality. We could se an overwhelming Madrid in attack but with some problems in the back part. As the captain of the white squad said in the interview after the match, “merengues” will have to improve several things in the defense. We also have to know that Ancelotti´s team had important players out due to different reasons like the French player Ferland Mendy, Toni Kroos or David Alaba, who will be incorporated during the next weeks.  

With this match we ended the 4^th journey of LaLiga. Real Madrid continues leading the classification and, on the other hand, Celta has had a bad start to the season. Now they are in the drop zone, but this is not how it begins, but how it ends.