Espanyol defeats Oviedo almost trouble free in the last match of their trip to Cádiz and Asturias
Espanyol had to complete the second part of their preseason practice, after the Carranza and the friendly against Sporting, by playing against Oviedo which made their debut in front of their fans. From the From the very first minute one could see that it wasn’t going to be an easy game in spite of the difference of categories, due to the number of games played by Espanyol without enough recovery time.
In a first division ground, excellent pitch, only a few but active fans and against a team which is longing to make a come back to the division in which they lived glorious moments in the past, the white and blue team got stuck from the beginning as Nano, in view advanced position by Kameni, did a very nice shot which flew over the Cameroon goalie, so therefore they scored in their very first shot on goal.
Espanyol however did not decompose and started to try the home goal. Oviedo players clearly positioned two lines on the pitch and started to give their initiave away. The Oviedo system did not cause too many problems to Pochettino men who started to control the game and the back of their rivals. Just in case, Forlin drew thanks to a header after a free kick by Luis García before a quarter of an hour from the start. And Luis García also scored in the first third of the game with another free kick.
Anybody could see that despite the difference, it was going to be a dull game with few chances, difficult to play and pretty slow. A header by Osvaldo could have finished the match but he did not score and the game was opened for the second half.
Pochettino had warned before this trip that he was determined to use all his players and he did do so by replacing if not the full team as the previous game with Sporting, indeed he introduced massive changes and by the end of the match he used all his available players except Javi López and Mattioni who did not participate.
As minutes passed by, the game was more and more slow and dull, however the Espanyol players were doing their job without suffering too much. Kiko Casilla had a couple of good performances meanwhile Espanyol got two non granted goals by Luis García and Alvaro through off side and even Didac shot against the net side.
Game stats
Real Oviedo: Aulestia, Víctor Díaz (Artabe, min.64), Jandro (Xavi Moré, min.46), Manu Busto (Richi, min.46), Perona (Miguel, min.69), Negredo, Falcón (Moisés, min.81), J.Rodríguez, López Ramos (Gonzalo, min.74), Nano (Jonhy, min.65) and Pascual (Yosu, min.57).
Substitutes: Berto, Artabe, Gonzalo, Xavi Moré, Miguel, Richi, Jonhy, Moisés and Yosu.
RCD Espanyol: Kameni (K.Casilla, min.46), Chica (Galán, min.68), D.García (Dídac, min.46), J.Márquez (Álvaro, min.68), Callejón (Coro, min.46), Luis García (R.Fonte, min.68), J.Verdú (Iván L.M., min.46), Osvaldo (Pau, min.68), Forlín (Raúl R., min.46), Amat (Moisés, min.46) and Galán (Molina, min.46).
Substitutes: K.Casilla, Dídac, Coro, Moisés, Iván L.M., Álvaro, Molina, Pau, Raúl R. and Rui Fonte.
Referee: José Ramón Piñeiro Crespo. Yellow card: Forlín (min.37), Luis García (min.40), Dídac (min.86).
Goals: 1-0, Nano (min.6); 1-1, Forlín (min.13); 1-2, Luis García (min.33).
Incidence: 3.400 spectators at the Carlos Tartiere. RCD Espanyol was represented in the presidential tribune by Germán de la Cruz.
