UD Almería vs RCD Espanyol de Barcelona: two teams made out of stone

If football were a state of mind, the opener Matchday 19 in LaLiga Santander will be euphoric. UD Almería are hosting RCD Espanyol de Barcelona this Friday (KO 9pm CET) in order to play the last match to complete the first half of the season. The Rojiblancos have shown that they are in a strong moment after two fixtures against some of the best clubs in Spanish football [Club Atlético de Madrid and Valencia CF] in which they competed fiercely to collect 1 point in each of them. As for the Catalan outfit, they will visit the South Coast on a four-week undefeated streak with two back-to-back triumphs scored on Matchdays 17 and 18, becoming one of the sides with the best results obtained after the World Cup Qatar break.

EIGHTH VISIT

The Power Horse Stadium will host RCD Espanyol on their 8th trip to the Almería lands, being 2014/15 the last season in Primera Division when the Blanquiazules set foot in the Juegos Mediterráneos Stadium. Back then, the first fixture of that campaign in which UD Almería were back in the big time, ended up in a one-all draw after an opening goal by host Fernando Soriano and a stoppage-tike leveller by Sergio García to take a share of the points. UD Almería and RCD Espanyol were direct rivals in the race for promotion to the Primera Division a couple of years ago; then, the Pericos had just lost their passage to the top flight and the Indalicos laid down the marker to earn automatic promotion against RCD Mallorca. It was the 2020/21 campaign and it was the last time the Españolista team visited the Rojiblancos, getting another tie in which once again the home team scored the opener and the guests levelled things up shortly after.

REFEREE

Valentín Pizarro Gómez will be the match official along with VAR assistant Jaime Latre. Pizarro Gómez is a referee from the Castile La Mancha region who has refereed four seasons in Primera Division. Previously, he spent five years blowing the whistle in the Spanish second-tier. He has never being in charge of a game played by UD Almería in the top tier, however he has made decisions in ten second-tier games played by the Rojiblancos with 3 wins, 3 draws and 4 defeats. Oddly enough, the same happens the other way round with RCD Espanyol since in the six games he was their their ref always in the first division, the results were 2 wins, a draw and 3 losses,

INTERESTING FACTS

The team with Diego Martínez in the driving seat has conceded the first goal of their matches in 14 fixtures; nonetheless, the Pericos have ended up picking up eight draws and six defeats under these circumstances, which only goes to show their great ability to come back from behind. In addition, it must be taken into account that more than half of the points (20 points) that RCD Espanyol have collected were taken away from their stadium; eleven points grabbed on their eleven outings, with only two defeats.

Rubi will face RCD Espanyol after the 44 games in which he was at the helm of the Catalan side; previously, the current Rojiblancos' head coach spent several campaigns putting the Pericos through their paces. The last time Rubi took on his former team was the day when he was Real Betis Balompié's head coach in the past 2019/20 season, with a one-all draw at the end of the meeting. They have only lost once to Espanyol: in the Spanish Cup fourth round when he was in charge of Levante UD. In total, he has played six games with one victory and four draws.

There are two current Rojiblancos who have recently worn the Espanyol jersey; Adrián Embarba, who joined UD Almería last summer from RCD Espanyol while Léo Baptistão was also a player that belonged to our next rivals team for three seasons. Current Blanquiazules Lazo and Aleix Vidal were also Rojiblancos in the past.

TUNE INTO THE MATCH

The meeting can be watched on DAZN and followed on UDA Radio and Dipalme Radio, which its programme Conexión Rojiblanca will be aired from 8pm (Spain Time) offering all the build-up to the game.