4-0: Bad luck continues in Villarreal
Osvaldo will be out for 4 weeks
Once Villarreal scored, Iturralde (the match referee) started with his unfortunate performance. Frankly, till that moment he seemed to be totally absent but from then onwards, inconsistent fouls and bookings flowed!! For the ref it was a virtually identical tackle on Callejón – almost having a broken leg – which he judged ‘unintentional’, that he ignored a clear foul of Víctor Ruiz on Nilmar when he was running straight on goal. Fair is fair. Well, only before there was a clear handball of a local Villarreal defender that went unpunished in a corner shot by Espanyol and booked Angel for a small and irrelevant kick. As we said, there is one point in which this man gets mentally crossed and everything changes!!
The truth is that during the first half an hour the match was full of rhythm. After Borja’s big chance, Espanyol reacted with three excellent ones, two by Osvaldo and triple shot by “the guaje” Luis García, Verdú and Osvaldo which were saved by Diego López, Musacchio and Capdevila.
Villarreal fans were concerned with Espanyol after hearing his own manager state that Espanyol was going to be one of the big surprises of the season. At one point he must have thought that he was being right. But Rossi scored in their first chance they had so that local fans were more relaxed. Shortly afterwards, Borja with his left foot shot an incredible kick which meant the second goal, an excessive prize for such little effort. On top of that Osvaldo had to be replaced after a tackle with Diego López which meant Pochettino had to reorganise his players. And then Iturralde who wanted to become the protagonist. He conceded a penalty to Villarreal in an action which Kameni clearly went for the ball whislt attempting to avoid Rossi, who in turn deliberately looked for a contact with our goalkeeper. Rossi scored and was pardoned by his fans after a week marked by controversial statements by the player.
The good news is that Iván de la Peña returned to the field after 10 endless months on the sidelines. In one of his first actions, he passed on the ball to Callejón who shot but the ball stopped on the goal line and Marchena managed to clear it. There was no way Espanyol was going to score in this match!!! Espanyol kept trying but to no avail. They moved the ball from one side to the other but Villarreal with the goal margin, was effective in their defence awaiting the final whistle. The fourth goal came after a fast action by Jefferson Montero culminated by Nilmar. Iván Alonso had an spectacular kick near the end which went out by milimitres. But Iturralde wanted to close the circle by sending Chica off after his spectacular tackle which had no bad intention. The fact is that Espanyol left the field after five seasons without scoring any goal to Diego López.
Game stats:
Villarreal CF: Diego López, Musacchio (Gonzalo, min.79), Marchena, Ángel, Nilmar, Cazorla (Jefferson Montero, min.69), Capdevila, Senna, Borja (Cani, min.69), Bruno and Rossi.
RCD Espanyol: Kameni, Chica, D.García, Javi Márquez (Iván Alonso, min.68), Víctor Ruiz, Callejón, Luis García (De la Peña, min.59), J.Verdú, Osvaldo (Sergio García, min.31), Forlín and Duscher.
Referee: Eduardo Iturralde González. Yellow card: Osvaldo (min.17), Luis García (min.24), Forlín (min.26), Callejón (min.26), Duscher (min.53), Iván Alonso (min.87), Musacchio (min.26), Ángel (min.36), Rossi (min.39), Diego López (min.61), Gonzalo (min.81). Red card: Chica (min.84).
Goals: 1-0, Rossi (min.22); 2-0, Borja (min.31); 3-0, Rossi (min.54); 4-0, Nilmar (min.76).
Incidents: Capdevila received a trophy that accredited him as the most distinguished player from Villarreal the past season. In the VIP box, representing RCD Espanyol was Daniel Sanchez Llibre, Ramon Condal, August Newton, Francesc Ciprés and Enrique Bertrán.
