Villarreal 0-1 Espanyol: Cabrera and a wall named Fortuño steal the Ceràmica
Three days after sacking their coach, Espanyol rode a Leandro Cabrera goal and a defiant goalkeeping display to end a six-game winless run at Villarreal.
Espanyol arrived at the Estadio de la Cerámica in chaos — coach sacked, a new one suspended before he could even take the bench — and left with the kind of win that can reset a season. Leandro Cabrera's 60th-minute goal, set up by Bryan Zaragoza according to Football España, gave the Catalans a 1-0 victory over Villarreal on Friday night and snapped a six-game winless run in La Liga.
A week of upheaval, a night of order
Espanyol dismissed Manolo González earlier in the week after a cup exit at Sestao River capped a run of one point from a possible 15 in the league. His replacement, Eder Sarabia, was appointed on October 28 but is serving a two-match suspension — so B-team coach Sergio García took the touchline as interim, and promptly delivered the club's biggest result of the autumn.
It was anything but comfortable. Villarreal controlled the ball and the chances — 14 shots to 5 and an expected-goals edge of 0.92 to 0.26, per Football España — but goalkeeper Ángel Fortuño held firm, finishing as the match's top-rated player. Espanyol even had a 50th-minute goal from Roberto Fernández ruled out by VAR for a hold on Pau Navarro before Cabrera struck ten minutes later.
Why it matters
For Espanyol, the three points lift them to 12th on 11 points and hand Sarabia something precious before he has coached a single match: breathing room. For Villarreal, now 10th on 12 points, the frustration is sharper. Gerard Moreno limped off with a muscle problem after just 17 minutes, replaced by Nicolas Pépé, and the timing could hardly be worse — Paris Saint-Germain visit in the Champions League on November 3.
A home defeat to a team in crisis, with a marquee European night looming, is exactly the sort of result that turns a middling league start into a talking point.