On the end of a 4-0 thumping by Valencia this evening. If they've got an ace up their sleeves, now is the time to play it because the gap between them and safety has grown to 6 points, and with a goal difference of -40, they won't be able to use that to their advantage at all. From the sounds of it, their confidence is absolutely shot. Really hope they can do a Leicester and start playing football.
Will some of our squad go over next season to help them get back up if the likely event of relegation happens? Good place for some like Murray, bond to get some game time as don't see them featuring much for us next season.
I've long thought it was a good idea that some of our youngsters with genuine 1st team potential should go to Granada or Udinese to hone their skills; maybe now that we are likely to become the jewel in the Pozzo's crown, this might start to happen more?
It does yeah. But their results against teams around them haven't been that great. [table="width: 500"] [tr] [td]Pos[/td] [td]Team[/td] [td]Pld[/td] [td]GD[/td] [td]Pts[/td] [td]Home res[/td] [td]Away res[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]15[/td] [td]Levante[/td] [td]33[/td] [td]-29[/td] [td]32[/td] [td]L0-1[/td] [td]L1-2[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]16[/td] [td]Eibar[/td] [td]33[/td] [td]-18[/td] [td]31[/td] [td]D0-0[/td] [td]D1-1[/td][/tr] [tr] [td]17[/td] [td]Almeria[/td] [td]33[/td] [td]-23[/td] [td]31[/td] [td]D0-0[/td] [td]L0-3[/td][/tr] [tr] [td]18[/td] [td]Deportivo La Coruna[/td] [td]33[/td] [td]-23[/td] [td]29[/td] [td]W2-1[/td] [td]D2-2[/td][/tr] [tr] [td]19[/td] [td]Granada[/td] [td]33[/td] [td]-40[/td] [td]25[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]20[/td] [td]Cordoba[/td] [td]33[/td] [td]-31[/td] [td]20[/td] [td]09.05[/td] [td]L0-2[/td] [/tr] [/table]
At least we can see why they're down there!! It's been a seriously poor season, with some ill discipline and last minute goals conceded amounting to quite a few dropped points. It'll take a miracle something alike that of Wigan's numerous Premier League survivals to turn this around, although the game against Cordoba could be huge.
If you could sum up Granada's season in a half, that was it. Controlled the game, had the majority of territory, yet didn't manage to create a clear chance all half. None of the Granada front 4 look remotely good enough, and a defensive mix up gives Espanyol a 44th minute goal.
Granada equalise! Free kick is cleared, the ball is crossed in after nice work from the winger and is well headed in by Diego Mainz. I've got Spanish commentary on so apologies for the lack of detail. 1-1 with fifteen minutes left.
Decent stop fro the Granada keeper after some quite frankly shocking defending. Absolutely no strength shown from the defence. Granada's Lass Bangoura then fires a shot marginally wide after Espanyol's keeper can only punch a corner to the edge of the penalty area. On 82 minutes now.
And it's 2-1 to Espanyol on 84 minutes. Decent wide play on the right from Espanyol, a winger cuts inside and plays the ball across, it hits the Granada defender then bounces back to said winger who hits it first time into the net. You can see why Granada have problems, even ignoring the goals. Their defending is not at all impressive. I can definitely see Pudil going over there this summer and, from the few matches I've seen them play this summer, I think he'd make a massive difference. Marquez just had a shot from about 25 yards go marginally wide for Granada. 2-1 it remains.
Granada's season summed up in one pass. The defence win the ball back fairly easily, move forward with it and plays it right between the two Granada players making runs down the right wing, out of play. Full time, 2-1 win for Espanyol. I'm afraid I can't see a way back from this.
16 shots to Espanyol's 7 but Granada lack someone to stick it in the back of the net. Their 4 strikers have 10 goals between them this season. Deserve to go down unfortunately.
Granada have dropped 11 points in the last 10 minutes of matches this season. Conceding 21 goals in the last 10 minutes of the match. Ouch.
They'd better start learning Spanish then. Only being able to communicate through an interpreter puts you at a huge disadvantage.
It's too simple to say that their problems are just down to inefficient strikers. Their whole team just seemed to have given up last night. I genuinely think our team from last season would have given them a run for their money. Hopefully we can repay the favour now and send a few of our players over to them to help them come back up in 2016. I think it's important that Granada fans remember where they were when the Pozzos took over - yes, this has been a disappointing season with an under-performing team, but even in the Segunda Division they're at a higher level than pre-Pozzo, probably with more chance of getting promoted again. Their future is bright. Hopefully, if we have a similar situation, our fans have this outlook too.
Would be a massive, confidence boosting win if they hold on. Another late goal and more dropped points and that will be pretty much that.
Not convinced that'll be enough. Granada (28) are three points behind Eibar and Almeria (31 each) with three games left (four for Almeria). They lost and drew v Almeria and drew both v Eibar, but have significantly worse GD so would finish below both of them if they were joint on points. To stay up, they'd need to get four points more than Eibar or Almeria over three games. If they only got four points more than one of those two, they'd also need to get two points more than Deportivo (30), and would then stay up on Head-to-Head (2-1 win and 2-2 draw). I can't see that happening, I'm afraid.
It probably is too little too late however the old 'take one game at a time' cliché kicks in for me. Got to win their next two though given Athletico at home is their final game.
If (and it's a very big "if") they win the next two and gain some confidence, Athletico in last game might be difficult but not impossible. Athletico is obviously quite greater quality, but will be in a confortable unchallenged third position in table and its players might be already with mind at the beach.
