Real Madrid vs. Espanyol

Madrid faced Espanyol Saturday following their disappointment of getting knocked out of the Champions League by AS Roma midweek.  Fabio Cannavaro was out injured and Gago was benched in favor of Higuain for los Blancos. The backline for Madrid was Heinze, Pepe, Torres, and Marcelo with the fabulous Casillas in goal for his 300^th game. They looked shaky at the start, with Espanyol getting a great chance just 2 minutes into the match which Casillas had to make a great save to stop.

Espanyol were coming off a string of bad results, in which they lost 6 of 8 matches and were without midfielder Ivan de la Pena.  They were lucky not to concede in the 13^th minute when Julio Baptista missed a header that could have put Madrid into the lead. After that the game died down some, with Madrid getting a few chances but none of them very clear cut. 

In the 29^th minute Valdo scored a goal off a corner for Espanyol.  The Real defence seemed to completely miss him as he was unmarked at the back post, though Espanyol’s set up might have been a major factor. Luis Garcia played in a wonderful cross off a short corner, and Valdo had no problem heading it in. 

In the 37^th minute Julio Baptista took a free kick about a yard out side of the box, and took it very well only to have Espanyol keeper Carlos Kameni pull off a wonderful save. Madrid did find their equalizer in the 42^nd minute. Marcelo, who was having a great half, beat his defender on the right wing and put in a great cross and Higuain hit it into the net.  Kameni tried, but was not able to keep it out. 

The half ended with Madrid continuing to put pressure on their opponents and Guti had a decent shot at goal, but it was straight at the keeper. At halftime the score was 1-1.

The second half began with Robinho being substituted for Drenthe, who came on and almost immediately was shown a yellow card for a rough tackle.  In the 54^th minute Espanyol almost scored again off a corner, when Casillas came out but came nowhere near to claiming the ball.  Luckily for him Pepe was there to clear it out for another corner.  The next 10 minutes were pretty back and forth, with Jonathan having a decent shot go over the bar for Espanyol, and Guti shooting a powerful shot right at the keeper.  Baptista was then subbed off for the finally fit Wesley Sneijder for Madrid and Jonathan was subbed for Raul Tamudo.

In the 70^th minute there was a moment of controversy when Raul was brought down in the box and a penalty was given.  Daniel Jarque seemed to have pulled down Raul, who went down right away.  The penalty was taken by Raul, who smashed it into the right corner of goal for his 200^th career goal for Madrid. 

 Guti almost got Madrid another goal, he went on a bursting run, cutting past two Espanyol defenders and almost turned to get a shot on goal but just lost the ball to the final defender at the last moment.  Madrid’s quality started to show as the match wore on, with more and more possession and chances coming for los Blancos. Sneijder and Marcelo both had shots, the first of which was saved, and the latter blasted wide.  As the match wore on it seemed more and more likely that Espanyol would not be abke to get an equalizer, but they won a late corner 3 minutes in to stoppage time for their last chance of the match.  It came to nothing however, as a foul was called on Espanyol, and less than a minute later.  Tamudo picked up a second yellow card after the match ended for arguing with the referee, and is now suspended for next week.  Madrid were able to get what seemed like a deserved win, though Espanyol played a good match and maybe feel a draw would have been a fair result. 

Final Score: Real Madrid 2 Espanyol 1