Liveblog: Real Madrid v Espanyol

Hala Madrid! Sorry I’m late, had troubles on the London Underground. We’re about 15 minutes in, it’s playing on Sky Sports 1 in the UK right now!

16min: Madrid is moving alright so far, in the 5 minutes I’ve watched… not getting the incisive pass they need.
17min: on the pitch for Real are Casillas, Ramos, Pepe, Cannavaro, Heinze, Diarra, de la Red, van der Vaart, Raul, Higuain and Ruud.
19min: Apparently Higuain is the new Robinho – every time he scores, Real wins. is that true?
20min: Damn it! Heinze fouls Tamudo with his trailing leg and gives away a penalty kick. Bollocks.
21min: Tamudo to take it…
21min: GOAL!!! Tamudo gets Casillas going the wrong way and slots it coolly into the net. Heinze should be terribly ashamed of his poor marking, trying to play Espanyol offside, but failing miserably. Real Madrid 0-1 Espanyol.
23min: that was seriously some horrid defending. They were clearly trying to play Nene offside, which he was, but they didn’t keep an eye on Raul Tamudo who had a free run into the box and Heinze sloppily tried to tackle him (does he do it any other way?)…
25min: GOAL!!! Real answers right back! Ramos carries the ball up the right wing, and crosses it right on a platter for Raul who is able to step in front of his marker to head the ball into the far corner. Great goal for el capitan. Real Madrid 1-1 Espanyol.
29min: Espanyol is really well organized at the back, keeping 9 men behind the ball and preventing Real the space from making any nice moves… they’re also moving forward quite well, even when outnumbered against Real’s defenders.
32min: GOAL!!! Espanyol take the lead again! The Catalans again moving forward with pace and purpose… Tamudo lays it off to the right for Roman, whose low cross finds a sprawled out Luis Garcia and it only requires a tap in… Heinze again losing his man, this time it’s Garcia who beats him to the ball. Real Madrid 1-2 Espanyol.
36min: Real really isn’t playing the high line well… it looks like it’s up to Pepe to step up to put the Espanyol attacker offside, but Heinze really has been poor today.
38min: Yellow card for Pepe who’s forced to put in a hard foot on an attacker when Real gets caught out on the counter. Ramos had ventured almost to the opposite touchline and was nowhere near his position on the right.
39min: OH! Espanyol miss a glorious chance to go up 3-1! The free kick catches Casillas leaning the wrong way, but it bounces off the post into the central scrum and somehow Diarra manages to clear it after … HORRID DEFENDING. It’s a wonder we’re not down by another goal.
41min: Raul attempts from just outside the 18-yard box and curls it JUST outside the post. Kameni had no chance if that had been 6 inches inside.
42min: Where is the central defense?!?? Diarra has to come back to cover and take the ball from Casillas as Pepe is somewhere in neverneverland, which, fyi, is somewhere up the pitch… Pepe really needs to work on knowing when to commit to going forward on the pitch. He needs to be back there on defense, where his speed can cover for other people’s mistakes, not his own…
43min: Yellow card on Ramos for a flimsy challenge on de la Pena.
45min: Ooh, that replay of the shaky free kick by Espanyol shows that after the Diarra clearance, Espanyol cross it in again, and an attacker rises up unmarked and heads the ball straight down then over the bar… Ugly defending.
45+2min: GOAL!!! Raul equalizes again! Great goal after a Ramos cross into the box, and a couple touches first by Raul then van der Vaart… Raul gets the ball back and with possibly the quickest feet besides Robben, shifts the ball from left to right and bangs it into the far corner. Real Madrid 2-2 Espanyol.
HALFTIME: Well, that’s it for the first half… how lucky are Madrid to nab an equalizer just before the whistle?
HALFTIME: Raul is back in sublime form… doubt he’ll be taken off tonight.
HALFTIME: I think Real are really missing Robben’s creativity and pace on the wings… they need his width to draw out the Espanyol defense who are currently crowding the box and not giving Real the space they need in the danger zone.
HALFTIME: But credit to Real’s resilience… they’re not giving up.
HALFTIME: Then again, they’re not helping themselves with the worst defense I’ve seen them play in at least a year. Just putrid.
HALFTIME: Ugh, the replay of Espanyol’s second goal is just terrible. Heinze who should be on the left, gets pulled into the centre by his mark, so Cannavaro has to slide over to challenge Roman on the left… but Heinze just kinda floats with his guy, and Pepe is in no man’s land… Heinze should either stick to his man, or switch off with Pepe. Ugly ugly ugly.
HALFTIME: Heinze is really proving to be the weak link in this back four, which is surprising considering this should be our strongest lineup… Would I feel any more confident with Torres or Marcelo out there though? Not really.
46min: Changes for both teams… Pareja off for Lacruz, van der Vaart off for Robben.
47min: Oh! Ruud gets a cross into the penalty area and with his back to goal, attempts an audacious kick (almost an overhead kick) and it gets on target, but Kameni dives to his right to save it.
49min: Real counterattacking with some verve and purpose, but Espanyol are defending with loads of people in the box. Higuain creates a chance, but Robben skies his shot over the crossbar.
52min: Where is everyone? Real get it up the left wing, but the cross (from Heinze or Robben?) goes into the box and there’s ONE white shirt against 5 defenders. What the blood?
54min: Casillas is off-form. Espanyol counterattack, and the shot from the left doesn’t seem to have much sting, but Iker pushes it into the middle where there’s luckily no attacker to take advantage of it.
57min: Great clearance by Cannavaro! Casillas commits to a challenge at the top of the box and the attacker gets around him, but the ball carries a bit too far to the right and the Italy international gets back in time to clear it.
58min: Real aren’t using the width that Robben can give… they’re still trying to push forward through the middle…
60min: OH! Robben scorches a ball towards Ruud and Raul, and i think it goes off a defender but Kameni makes a great reflex save. WOW.
61min: Change for Espanyol… Roman comes off for Angel Martinez.
62min: Diarra pushing up the left, without time to swap back with Robben… clearly doesn’t have the fancy ball skills as the Dutchman but holds his own out there…
64min: Ooh… Sneijder might be coming on!
65min: Sneijder on for de la Red. Curious… who is supposed to be the playmaker now?
66min: OH!!! How did that not go in?!?! Ruud latches onto Higuain’s square ball and lashes it goalwards but Kameni smothers it. If Ruud put that anywhere in the left half of the goal, we’d be leading now. OMG, how did Kameni react that fast?
68min: de la Pena gets a yellow, i think for dissent.
69min: Drenthe prepping to come on… Schuster is looking to stretch the Espanyol defense with the pace of Robben, Sneijder and Drenthe.
69min: ooh… Sneijder’s first attempt on goal for the season finds the target, but it was a long-range shot that was more hopeful than expectant…
70min: uh oh… it’s Robben off for Drenthe. Another knock for the glass man?
71min: Initial word is it’s a hamstring niggle… not good.
72min: Ramos with a great steal of the ball, but gets too greedy and does two stepovers and skies the ball… should’ve squared it for Ruud or Raul. Damn it.
74min: Why is Higuain shooting so much from outside the box? IT’S NOT WORKING! That’s at least the third attempt he’s done from 20+ yards out.
74min: Ugh, Drenthe’s cross from the left is horrible… goes over everyone’s head in the box, including the 3 white shirts.
75min: de la Pena comes off for Coro.
78min: Oh! Sneijder pushes the ball up for Heinze (wtf?) who reaches the touchline but cuts it back for Ruud, only for the Dutchman to put his header wide. Ruud doesn’t normally miss that.
79min: Diarra gives up a really iffy free kick, Coro really plays it up in my opinion.
81min: Pepe looks a bit better in the second half… those long legs are really doing the business in blocking kicks and passes…
82min: DAMN IT! Again, another attempt by Higuain from outside the box, nowhere near the target. As a team, Madrid have only hit 7 of 18 shots on target.
84min: And now Higuain gives up the free kick on the left. Not a good night for the young forward.
85min: man, it’s all in the Real half right now. Come on, lads, pick it up!
87min: COME ON!!! What the hell is going on? why is everyone so damn selfish tonight?!?! Great throughball to Ramos who lays it off for Drenthe on the left, and for some reason, the youngster kicks it forward then launches it skyward over the bar when there’s 4 white shirts in the box.
88min: Ok, seriously, why does everyone think they can score from outside the penalty area? This time it’s Diarra.
90min: 3 minutes of extra time. Still only 7 shots on target, out of 20 attempts.
90+1min: Yes! Drenthe finally uses that quick burst of pace, and wins a free kick from a central area just outside the box. Looks like Sneijder will take this one…
90+1min: What?!? Looks like a handball, but no call from the ref!!!
90+2min: Ok, on different replays, it’s really unclear and i guess the ref played on with the uncertainty…
90+3min: Stupid yellow card for Diarra in the dying seconds of the match, with some heated shoving around happening…
90+4min: and we’re done, after a momentary loss of picture at the end.
POSTGAME: Well, it’s a 2-2 draw for Real, who remain undefeated at the Bernabeu since the end of March of this year. It’s unconvincing though, Espanyol really ought to be disappointed not to have won.
POSTGAME: Poor defending and really extremely poor shooting and decision-making from Real, though to be fair, they still could’ve won if not for a couple Kameni reflex saves.
POSTGAME: But full credit to Espanyol.. they played positive, dangerous football and could’ve come out with 3 points.
POSTGAME: Not sure about the other results around La Liga, but we may have lost ground on Valencia and Villarreal.
POSTGAME: I’m still shocked at how badly we defended. There’s no way we can expect to win the league or get far in Europe if we don’t shore up at the back.
POSTGAME: And why oh why, did we abandon the idea that we should be scoring from INSIDE the 18-yard box? Both of Raul’s goals came from within the area, just outside the 6-yard box… then in the second half, everyone is shooting from long distance? WTF?
POSTGAME: I wouldn’t be surprised if Schuster tore a new one in everyone on that team. What a putrid game.
POSTGAME: Ok, let’s go to individual scorecards… Casillas didn’t really have a chance on either goal, but has looked a bit shaky in the early part of this season. His positioning of the wall on that Espanyol free kick was terrible too. I guess San Iker isn’t walking on water now…
POSTGAME: Ramos was probably the best defender, wasn’t caught out too much and made some decent runs forward, though he too caught the long-range attempt bug. Pepe was like night and day from the first to the second half, improving as the game went on. Maybe Cannavaro finally got through to him? The Italian was steady, can’t say much more than that. Heinze was terrible. He was terrible last match but managed to score… this time, he gifts two goals to Espanyol and provided nothing else.
POSTGAME: Diarra was solid, covering at the back when he needed to, going forward when the pace dictated… he’s fine. de la Red still needs some seasoning, but it’s good to see him get some extended playing time with Guti out at the moment. I think de la Red could backtrack more though. van der Vaart was rather quite anonymous tonight.
POSTGAME: Higuain was blowing not hot and cold, but lukewarm and freezing. He had some decent movement but he has no business launching shots from 20+ yards away on a keeper as swift as Kameni. Ruud was uncharacteristically off-target on his header attempt, and he was unlucky not to have scored when Kameni was just in the right place at the right time. Of course, Real’s saviour on this night was Raul Gonzalez Blanco, who provided the few moments of inspiration.
POSTGAME: Robben was a nuisance for the Espanyol defense for the 25 minutes or so he was on the pitch, but we’ll have to see how injured he is. Sneijder made his first appearance of the year and didn’t look too bad… he’ll probably need a match or two to get fully match-fit, but his take on the free kick was pretty decent, unlucky not to have gotten a call on the possible handball. Drenthe needs to stick to what he’s good at, which is terrorizing defenders with his pace on the wing… still, not a bad showing.
POSTGAME: Ok, i really don’t want to think about this anymore cuz I’m just getting mad reliving the whole thing in my head. Los Merengues need to work on a lot, but unfortunately, there’s a few international qualifiers which are coming in the next couple weeks and that’ll disrupt the flow. Later skaters.

Category: Liveblog, Team News

Tags: Espanyol, Liveblog, Team News

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