In the first Spanish round of the new year, Espanyol will face Leganes on Friday-evening at its own RCDE Stadium. The Catalans are ready for a fresh start, after they say goodbye to 2018 in a disastrous manner. However, Leganes is working on an impressive series.
Espanyol:
For Espanyol the winter break came as a gift from heaven. The Catalans initially had a surprisingly strong start to the season, but in the last weeks of 2018 they completely lost track. The blue-whites lost their last six league matches and even after the home defeats at home, FC Barcelona (0-4), Real Betis (1-3) and Girona (1-3) are no longer left behind. Espanyol has meanwhile slipped to the anonymity of the right-hand row and also the credit of trainer Rubi disappears like snow in the sun.
The big question now is whether Espanyol will succeed in halting her free fall in the rankings. Because of the many goals in the final weeks in the RCDE Stadium the question arose whether Rubi might have to play with an extra defender, but for the time being the coach seems to want to stick to the usual recipe with four defenders. It is for him to hope that Mario Hermoso will get fit in time, because the Spanish internationals is by far the best defender of Los Pericos.
Leganes:
Leganes is much better in shape and Espanyol is now approaching two points in the rankings. The team of coach Mauricio Pellegrino stands as a house, because the Madrid team are now nine matches in a row undefeated. In the final league game of 2018, Los Pepineros even almost won against former vice-leader Sevilla (1-1), after goalkeeper Pichu Cuellar got the equalizer of Sevilla striker Wissam Ben Yedder in injury time.
Given the excellent form of Leganes, Pellegrino will take little effort to present its basic eleven for Friday night. The only question mark is who will take over the place of the suspended midfielder Ruben Perez, although Mikel Vesga seems to have the best papers after his strong game against Sevilla. However, the other names are as good as steady.
PREDICTION: Both teams to score / NO @ 1.70
