1-2: 10-man Almería triumph over Sabadell in epic night
Ramazani scores the late winner. Fernando saved a spot-kick when the game was all square
UD Almería snatched an epic victory in Sabadell despite spending the entire second half with ten men in action. It was Ramazani, one of the most standout players over the course of the meeting, in charge of making it 1-2 demonstrating the improvement of Almeria in the final stretch. Shortly after the start, Aketxe put the Rojiblancos ahead and it was after 1-1 when Peybernes was shown the red card. Goalie Fernando saved a penalty that secured a win.
José Gomes rang the changes on the starting XI, since all the players on duty were new compared to the previous appointment. Almería began the contest with Fernando; Aitor Buñuel, Peybernes, Chumi, Centelles; Petrovic, César de la Hoz, Aketxe, Ramazani, Robertone and Pedro Mendes.
The match began fast-paced for the Rojiblancos. In fact, after 10 minutes the score was 0-1 after Aketxe converted a penalty committed on Largie Ramazani. The Belgian player, who leaped beyond his marker several times, was left alone in front of the goalkeeper after a great pass from team-mate Petrovic. It was a déjà-vu play that had also been staged just moments before, but with a goal disallowed for offside.
As the time began to wind down, the result on the scoreboard forced Sabadell to press up chasing the equaliser. With 38 minutes on the clock, Stoichkov broke away from the defence to give Fernando a hard time with a towering header. The goal was rather significant since protesting Peybernes was given a yellow card and two minutes later he ended up being sent off after his second bookable offence.
After half-time, Jose Gomes decided to bring on subs Balliu and Jorge Cuenca and bench Centelles, who was shown a yellow card, and Robertone. In this way, Almeria would play with the Catalan right-back operating as a right-footed defender and the forward trio- Aketxe, Ramazani and Pedro Mendes –spinning away their positions to protect the hole when needed.
Those changes did not work out and on top of that, the match official awarded a penalty on Sabadell for a handball from Balliu inside the box. Of course, Fernando was not willing to concede a goal again and pulled off a superb save after penalty-taker Stoichkov failed to beat him from the spot. It was the 64th minute and Umar Sadiq and Lazo climbed-off the bench for Aketxe and Pedro Mendes.
The lads in red and white were gaining momentum. So much so that, Lazo put Fuoli to the test on 78 minutes. That play was created from Sadiq’s fantastic cross from the heart of the pitch.
It was at the very last moment when Almeria were awarded for their improvement during the second forty-five minutes. Samú crossed in and Ramazani plucked up the courage to round off his great performance by beating the keeper and breaking the deadlock (1-2). That was exactly when the Rojiblancos revelled in the glory of their victory.