Espanyol intends to close the goal at the less favorable stadium

Unai Emery’s men have scored 29 goals in the 13 games played in the Ceramics (an average of 2.2 goals scored per game), one more than Real Madrid have signed at the Santiago Bernabeu (28) and three more than Sevilla beat Sánchez Pizjuán (26). Castellón also surpass a European giant like PSG (28) and are very close to Liverpool or Inter (30). Most surprising of all is that in seven of the 13 matches played at his stadium they have not been able to count on their goal man, Gerard Moreno. The Santa Perpètua de Mogoda striker will not be able to face the team where he trained due to a sun injury, the third physical problem that forces him to be out this season.

A consolation, halfway through, for a Spaniard who will have to pay special attention to the other threats from the yellow submarine: up to six Villarreal players have scored more than five goals in all competitions this season. A goal-scoring repertoire led by Arnaut Danjuma (12 goals) and that has little to do with what brings Espanyol together. Raúl de Tomás (13 goals) is the only white-and-blue player to have scored more than four goals this season. The Madrid striker has a good memory of Ceramics: there he made his debut with Espanyol, with a goal and a victory, on January 19, 2020.

Espanyol assumes that, in order to score in the Ceramics, they will have to score a goal. Villarreal, despite their offensive potential, are by no means an infallible team in their stadium: six visiting teams have managed to draw, three have won and eight more have lost. All those who have won, however, have scored two or more goals. Only Granada and Real Madrid (with two 0-0) have scored in the Castellon feud without scoring.

Broken solvency

Mark it or not, Vicente Moreno’s team needs to regain the defensive reliability that characterized him in the first leg of the championship. He now accumulates 10 consecutive days fitting in. “It’s a circumstantial fact, it depends on the success, but it is true that the idea is to try to find more goals at zero,” admitted the Spanish coach before visiting Villarreal. The white-and-blues have gone from conceding 14 goals in the first 15 games (0.9 goals conceded per game) to receiving 21 in the last 10 (2.1). The loss of solvency is evident, especially at RCDE Stadium. By day 15, only four of the 14 goals (28%) conceded had reached the Spanish stadium. Since then, 12 of the next 20 goals (60%) have been conceded in Cornellà-El Prat.

The time has also come for the white-and-blue team to concede goals. Until the visit of Levante, on day 16, nine of the 15 goals received (60%) had reached the second half, when the team was more tired. Since that match, 11 of the 20 goals against (55%) have reached the first half. In other words, Espanyol are now worse off in the games, but they are doing better. Considering all the league games, the number of minutes in which he concedes the most goals is in the first quarter of an hour of the second half (nine goals), followed closely by the last quarter of an hour of the match: a From the 75th minute, Espanyol conceded eight goals. One minus, seven, arrived in the first 15 minutes.

The origin of Espanyol’s goals comes mainly from the wings: 12 came from an attack made by the lane defended by Pedrosa, while nine came from the side defended by Óscar Gil and Aleix Vidal. “Most of the goals come in actions on the side, the centers are one of the most repeated actions in the matches,” said Moreno, who also claimed the work of his central defenders: “Cabrera and Sergi Gómez are two of the central defenders who more balls refuse from the League, “he said. A dozen goals came after filtered passes or counterattacks that entered the central area. The white-and-blues, however, present themselves as a fairly reliable team when it comes to defending actions on set pieces: they have only conceded two penalty goals, one in a corner and one in a foul.