In the seventh round of this season’s La Liga, Espanyol welcomed Villarreal in the fixture that could help them overcome their past issues and come closer to their rivals out of the relegation zone. Pablo Machín’s boys were highly motivated before this game, but have struggled to perform which resulted in the away win of 1:0, and also made sure that the Catalans’ problems don’t go away any time soon as they’ll continue their battle for survival.
This tactical analysis will show you how the visitors overpowered their opponents using their tactics and went home with another three points in their pocket.
Lineups
The home team’s coach set his team in the 5-2-3 formation which highly depended on the side runs and compact positioning of their lines. Their main attacking force laid in the hands and feet of Matías Vargas and Sergi Darder who played up front along with Jonathan Calleri. Most of their actions went through the flanks so the three forwards had huge support from their wing-backs embodied in Adrià Pedrosa and Victor Gómez.
Javier Calleja went into the game with an unstrict 4-3-3 formation which went through a lot of transformations throughout the 90 minutes. The key players of their team were Santi Cazorla and Vicente Iborra who held the midfield, while the most dangerous players of their starting eleven were Karl Toko Ekambi and Gerard Moreno, who were often playing as the striking duo.
