Tuesday night’s most interesting match in La Liga sees Real Madrid host Espanyol in their strong fortress – the Santiago Bernabeu. Watch out for another thrilling adventure…
Real Madrid will take on Espanyol on Tuesday night hoping to clinch a victory and thus stay on top of Barcelona.
Real Madrid will take on Espanyol on Tuesday night hoping to clinch a victory and thus stay on top of Barcelona.
When you look at Espanyol’s statistics in La Liga this season, you find great inconsistency. The very fact that they were thrashed 4-0 at El Madrigal against Villarreal on match-day two of the competition reveals the enormous difference between Espanyol’s home and away form.
Things are remarkably incomparable at the Cornella – El Prat where they kicked off their La Liga season with a 3-1 victory over Getafe. Almeria also went down 1-0 at that venue against Espanyol last weekend. So out of three matches, Barcelona’s local rivals have picked up six points, scored four but conceded five.
Last season, when Espanyol could only finish eleventh in the standings, they lost as much as twelve matches out their nineteen away fixtures. There’s definitely much room for improvement, but will the Santiago Bernabeu offer space for progress?
During the 2009/2010 edition of La Liga, Real Madrid defeated Espanyol 3-0 both home and away. That’s the kind of result that fans would want to see on Tuesday night.
So far however, Los Blancos are still developing into a complete team under the charge of Jose Mourinho. Real Madrid have done just enough to improve from the disappointing 0-0 draw they earned away to Real Mallorca on the opening day of La Liga campaign.
Nothing fancy; two one-goal margin wins out of two games have taken them two points behind 100% record-holders Valencia who seat on top of the league table. Coach Jose Mourinho is aware of the importance of tonight’s match against Espanyol as he declared during a press conference:
“Espanyol is a talented team. They know how to play good football. They’ll come here to win, just like every team does. We are not on top in the standings, but we’re right there.
“We’ve got a lot of teams lacking behind us, and very few above us. We must continue to win and to maintain stability.”
Most importantly, Real Madrid are above La Liga defending champions and rivals Barcelona. The Catalans are sixth currently, and that’s a condition which Los Blancos hope to maintain until the end of campaign. After a training session held last Sunday, midfielder Esteban Granero explained as he talked to the media:
“We are excited about the prospect of defeating Espanyol in our stadium. Our start to the league has been good, and we need to keep it up. We are confident that we can and should remain on top of Barcelona this year.”
Real Madrid are unbeaten this season in all competition. Should they defeat Espanyol, they’ll record their 20th La Liga home win in 21 matches played at the Santiago Bernabéu since last season.
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