An intense battle between two teams striving for Europe at the Estadi Cornellà-El Prat ended with a huge victory for Espanyol. With Athletic Bilbao in seventh and Espanyol six points behind in eighth, this was a must-win game, and, well, they won.
Espanyol Vs. Athletico Bilbao: Late Strike From Ivan Alonso Gives Espanyol 2-1 Win
Early on it looked as though Bilbao had come for a draw and were going to get it, but things were turned on their head thanks to a probably-offside goal by Pablo Osvaldo followed up almost immediately by the equaliser for Bilbao, a free kick that should never have been awarded hammered home by Suaeta. To complete a trifecta of major errors in the last ten minutes of the first half, Gorka Iraizoz then got away with scything Osvaldo down in the penalty area. The hosts appealed, but their protests were inexplicably waved away.
Bilbao decided not to leave things to chance in the second half, introducing Fernando Llorente to the mixer, but the usual strategy of 'punt the ball long to Llorente' didn't seem to work particularly well, and Espanyol were very much on the front foot all half. They came close to scoring when Osvaldo found himself one on one with Iraizoz only to see the veteran goalkeeper beat the ball away, and finally got the goal their play deserved when Osvaldo broke free and slide the ball across the face of the goal for Ivan Alonso to convert in the 76th minute.
The hosts hate to survive a flurry of attacking intent from Bilbao immediately after the goal, but even that storm settled and they were eventually able to cruise to a relatively comfortable (and critically important) win. It will still be extremely difficult for Espanyol to overhaul Bilbao into seventh place, but that’s better than almost mathematically impossible, which is what the situation would be if they hadn’t won today.
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