La Liga
December 20, 2012
Espanyol
2 - 0
Deportivo La Coruña
La Liga
21:00 +00:00, December 20, 2012
Estadi Cornella-El Prat
Espanyol climb out of drop zone
Scoring Summary
| Espanyol | Deportivo La Coruña |
|---|---|
| Simão (30') | |
| Christian Stuani (88') |
Teams
| Espanyol | Deportivo La Coruña |
|---|---|
| 13 Francisco Casilla | 13 German Lux |
| 15 Héctor Moreno | 6 Aythami Artiles Oliva |
| 19 Diego Colotto | 24 Carlos Marchena |
| 18 Joan Capdevila | 3 Evaldo |
| 16 Javí López | 2 Manuel Pablo |
| 6 Juan Forlin | 14 Abel Aguilar |
| 4 Víctor Sánchez | 4 Alex Bergantiños |
| 9 Sergio García | 11 Riki |
| 10 Verdú | 9 Pizzi |
| 20 Simão | 22 Diogo Salomão |
| 22 Mubarak Wakaso | 16 Bruno Gama |
| Substitutes | |
| 17 Juan Albin | Daniel Aranzubía 1 |
| 8 Christian Stuani | Juan Carlos Valerón 21 |
| 7 Raúl Baena | André Santos 8 |
| 3 Raúl Rodríguez | Javier Camuñas 18 |
| 27 Víctor Álvarez Delgado | Nelson Miguel Castro Oliveira 25 |
| 24 Alfonso | Diego Seoane Peréz 33 |
| 35 Germán | Roderick Miranda 19 |
| Substitutions | |
| Raúl Baena for Víctor Sánchez (45) | Nelson Miguel Castro Oliveira for Riki (61) |
| Christian Stuani for Mubarak Wakaso (77) | André Santos for Alex Bergantiños (71) |
| Juan Albin for Verdú (90) | Juan Carlos Valerón for Diogo Salomão (78) |
| Yellow Cards | |
| Víctor Sánchez (26) | Aythami Artiles Oliva (36) |
| Raúl Baena (84) | Pizzi (90) |
| · Squads: Espanyol | Deportivo La Coruña | |
Espanyol moved out of the Primera Division drop zone following a hard-earned 2-0 victory over rock-bottom Deportivo La Coruna.
Former Portugal international Simao Sabrosa headed home just after the half hour in a match where the losers would have the unwanted position of going into the two-week winter break at the foot of the table.
In the closing stages, substitute Christian Stuani sealed the three points which moved Javier Aguirre's men into 16th place although they could find themselves back in the bottom three by Saturday.
Both teams came into tonight on the back of seven-match winless runs in the league and cup and were locked together on 12 points.
Yet the hosts had shown some signs of recovery in recent weeks, drawing their last three matches under new coach Javier Aguirre, including an encouraging 2-2 draw at Real Madrid last time out.
They started in confident fashion at the Estadi Cornella-El Prat, with Sergio Garcia and Wakaso Mubarak narrowly missing the target in the opening 10 minutes.
They were nearly caught on the hop, with Deportivo striker Riki's header forcing Francisco Casilla into action.
Luis Pizzi's 25-yard strike was beaten away by Casilla and it proved to be a vital save when Simao scored his second goal of the season by heading past helpless Deportivo shot-stopper German Lux in the 31st minute.
Garcia continued to make a nuisance of himself amongst the visitors' defence and saw one shot miss the target before Lux did brilliantly to palm another round the post.
Depor were in no mood to lie down, however, and Abel Aguilar somehow missed the target from close range, while Riki headed Luis Pizzi's free-kick over the bar.
The action died down after the interval, with the first effort on goal coming after the hour, Espanyol substitute Raul Baena blazing over from just outside the area.
The visitors were not doing enough in the final third to warrant an equaliser, with Aguilar and on-loan forward Nelson Oliveira striking over from distance.
However, the latter did have Casilla scrambling to tip round the post, but any hopes of a comeback were killed off two minutes from time.
Stuani collected the ball from Baena before drilling low into the net to seal a satisfactory win for Espanyol.