On May 25, 2025, we will look back at August 19, 2025 with relief or regret. There are 37 games left to determine relegation to the Second Division and the teams in the lower zone are already talking respectfully about hell, even with a whole season ahead of them. The abacus starts well-oiled, studying rival results and various calculations with points lost or gained by the competitors to avoid the horror. At the moment, Real Valladolid is more eager to stay up than RCD Espanyol, as it has shown in its debut in Zorrilla with its victory over the Catalans based on two names: Amallah and Moro.
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Karl Hein, Lucas Rosa, Enzo Boyomo, Javi Sánchez (Stanko Juric, min. 62), Luis Pérez, Raúl Moro, Eray Cömert (David Torres, min. 81), Kike Pérez (Chuki, min. 81), Amath Ndiaye ( Iván Sánchez, min. 69), Selim Amallah (Víctor Meseguer, min. 69) and Mamadou Sylla
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The following players are from the same cast: Joan Garcia, Alvaro Tejero (Jofre Carreras, min. 69), Leandro Cabrera, Omar El Hilali, Sergi Gomez, Carlos Romero, Pol Lozano (Alex Kral, min. 56), Jose Gragera (Alvaro Aguado, min. 77), Pere Milla (Irvin Cardona, min. 56), Alejo Veliz (Antoniu Roca, min. 69) and Javi Puado
Goals
1-0 min. 22: Raul Moro
Referee Pablo Gonzalez Fuertes
Yellow cards
Antoniu Roca (min. 71), Lucas Rosa (min. 79), Irvin Cardona (min. 86), Ivan Sanchez (min. 96)
The attacking midfielder and the winger, the winger and the attacking midfielder, drove the five defenders deployed by the visiting coach crazy, a Manolo González who sinned in the same way that the Segunda accused him of: being conservative. On the bench next to him, another eternally questioned, the Uruguayan Paulo Pezzolano. For the moment, although there is still a long way to go, the coach has managed to silence the criticism against him, expressed in the presentation of the teams. The recipe, that intensity so important in close matches like these, with squads still to be tiled and with the fans more interested in the cool watermelon and the portable cooler than the sandwich and the sunflower seeds.
Pucela came out commanding, fast, with a pace not so usual in the lazy beginnings of the season. They did so through the incursions of Moro, a whirlwind on the left, eager to demonstrate why he was signed in the summer after the good omens of his loan at Zorrilla last season. His partner, Amallah, returned from Valencia with few minutes and too many injuries in his bag. The smiles of the blanquivioleta will pass through both of them and their continuity, like the frustrated one between the posts by a defender who repelled Cömert’s header after a local action.
After a while, it was Moro’s turn. Amath opened the ball, the number 11 twisted inwards, here, there, I put it in, I don’t put it in, I shoot… and goal. The defeated Joan García could do little after the ball bounced off a defender, so much so that it also counts, especially among those down low. The slap did not wake up Espanyol, confused with the ball and too much demanded without it. Amath could have extended the lead with a header against the crossbar shortly before the break, with no more “Oops!” than a long shot from Puado that barely worried Hein, a new addition to the Valladolid team under the crossbar after the end of Masip’s cycle.
The visit to the dressing rooms continued in the same vein, with Valladolid more lively towards the second goal but with the parakeets more mobile up front, pinching the home defence due to losses in midfield. A fleeting visiting counterattack could have equalised the score but the Catalans were weighed down by the ball, more afraid of making decisions with the ball than passing it to a teammate. The attempt came to nothing. The pucelanos also failed in set pieces and incursions from the wings with the hyperactive, and somewhat tired, Raúl Moro. The clock was running and between the physicality still to be sculpted and the fear of losing the advantage, Zorrilla’s men began to close in. Cardona first and Puado later frightened the Castilian parish with long shots but not too long from a very secure Hein, well assisted by Boyomo and Juric, the latter from the bench. The fans, experts in agony, had missed for a year the suffering of enduring a victory in the First Division: every second weighs, every dead ball scares, every divided ball is fought for with a machete, every successful pass is half a goal.
More than 22,000 people were watching the outcome and many thousands more in Leganés, Mallorca, Vigo, Vallecas, Getafe or Pamplona, a priori, at the mercy of the thousand twists and turns of football, so well known in Zorrilla. The visitors brought out artillery, the locals more concrete at the back and coin tosses between aerial balls, scoldings to the referee, aching muscles in the still tender muscles, nerves among the 22 protagonists, still waiting for reinforcements here and there… and no Pezzolano, resign! In the statistics, a single shot on goal, scored with a victory. There is still a long way to go until May but the three points from August weigh today and will weigh in the calculations for the end of the season. Next stop, the fearsome Bernabéu for Monday’s winners; with Espanyol making their debut against Real Sociedad. Second test in that eternal race for the First Division, so suffered and so desired by those who not long ago dreamed of it.
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