Friday, May 18th, 2012
Giuseppe Rossi’s outstanding solo strike was enough to separate two sides battling for the much-coveted Champions League places.
Villarreal had a great chance in the early stages, when they had a corner just inside 5 minutes which Gonzalo Rodriguez headed over from close range.
The hosts then were spurred on by their dedicated home support, and Javi Chica went close when his volley was palmed away by Diego Lopez in the Villarreal goal. Javi Marquez was pulling the strings in midfield for Espanyol as usual, and his cross field passing was giving the yellow shirts plenty of running to do.
Marquez supplied another excellent pass for Sergio Garcia soon after, and the ponytailed one saw his effort hit the wood work after striking a well judged effort. All of Espanyol’s play was coming through their midfield creator, and he watched his own trademark smash from distance narrowly go over the bar soon after.
Villarreal then had a response, in the form of Marco Ruben seeing his own effort hit the underside of the bar. Replays showed that Carlos Kameni did well to get a touch on the ball to divert it away from the net.
The visitors were to take a shock lead though, and silence the home support. Santi Cazorla was his usually elegant self in the midfield and he lofted a well-timed pass towards Rossi who took the ball in his stride. With the angle against him, and two defenders closing, the Italian got his head up and unleashed a ferocious shot high into the net from an acute angle.
It was a truly phenomenal effort, and one which could’ve only been struck by a striker who is full of confidence.
They nearly doubled their lead too, with Cani’s effort being well stopped by Kameni this time.
Villarreal were sensible after the restart, and they let Espanyol bring the game to them without ever being too troubled. At every opportunity Juan Carlos Garrido’s side broke away with verve, though they were unable to get another goal.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side huffed and puffed, but were unable to break down the yellow wall. They held a lot of possession and the majority of the stats in that sense will go in their favour, but Pochettino will be disappointed at the lack of goalmouth threat.
José Callejón has been in fine form recently, and though he worked hard leading the line it was never enough against such an organised outfit.
Substitute Jesus Datolo leaped with great determination to head towards goal with fifteen minutes remaining, but went just wide with the header.
In stoppage time David Garcia nearly grabbed a priceless equaliser, but it wasn’t to be. Villarreal held out for the win and are now eight points ahead of Espanyol who remain in fifth place.
The loss compounds a miserable week for the side from Barcelona, having lost two key assets early in the week in the form of Víctor Ruiz who moved to Napoli and Dídac Vilà who also made the switch to Italy and he’ll be playing for AC Milan.
FT: Espanyol 0 – Villarreal 1 (Rossi, 45)
Tags: Espanyol, Rossi, Villarreal
