Espanyol, forced to beat an Oviedo dreaming of promotion

Win or win. There is no alternative. This is the view that comes with spanish three games from the end of the league. Manolo González’s men received a Oviedo which is only one point below Pericos: in case of victory, the Asturians, in addition to winning the specific average goal, will overtake Pericos by two points and deny them sixth place. Or what is the same, on the edge of the cliff that means left out of play off. Because direct promotion seems, despite locker room pretensions, more of a chimera than a real option.

Five strings consecutively (Leganés, Andorra, Elche, Sporting and Valladolid) delivered the spanish from second to (now) fifth place. Beyond statistical data, the evidence underscores the need to win a battle that will not be easy. And not only through the weapons of a Oviedo that’s next two consecutive wins as well as the shortcomings of an Espanyol that, beyond the results, seems to have lost the energy it had in the first phase of the season: it scored three goals in the last five games and had two clean sheets (Sporting and Valladolid ).

There are many low parakeets

Besides, Manolo Gonzalezblue and white coach, will have to do a lot of work to become the starting eleven, especially in the midfield, where he will be. casualties accumulate. The suspended Melamed (who was sent off with a double yellow at Pucela the previous day) was joined by the absence of the injured Jofre (who almost certainly won’t be back, if necessary, until the play off due to the sprained ankle he suffered. Valladolid), and Pol Lozano, who ‘fell’ in the duel against Elche. The mystery remains about Gragera, who also sprained his ankle the day before but about whom Manolo González has hopes of recovering.

The meeting comes, from the Spanish point of view, in the middle of the new sales rumours of the club. In this case, and as lagradaonline.com announced on Saturday, Alejandra de la Vega, Paul Foster and Andrés Fassi are among the possible buyers. An operation that, according to the aforementioned source, is at an advanced stage of negotiations, despite the fact that it does not indicate, given the previous precedents, any guarantee that it will crystallize in the form of an agreement and transfer of mostly. shareholding of which is currently in the hands of Chinese businessman Chen Yansheng.

It remains to be seen if this issue has any impact on environment which will be experienced this afternoon at Stage Front Stadium. A fiefdom that has set attendance records in the team’s last three home games, leaving it at 25,015 for Sporting day. It’s a good sign that the fans continue to believe in a team that must win or win and that seem to have ‘parked’ the team’s drifting protests until the end of the season