Espanyol vs Gijon Preview: Spain Primera Division Jornada 36 2011/12

Pre Match
April 28, 2012 5:00 PM BST
Estadi Cornellà-El Prat — Cornellà de Llobregat

Team News

Espanyol

Manager Mauricio Pochettino is expected to make at least one change from the side that started at the Calderon as Romaric was forced off at half-time with an injury so Christian Gomez should regain his place in midfield.

Espanyol failed to take advantage of Atletico Madrid's Europa League exertions last weekend as they fell to a 3-1 defeat in the capital to leave them three points off the European places. Los Pericos have now won just once in their last seven matches, but that was in their last home game with a 4-0 success over Valencia.

Probable lineups : Alvarez, Dídac, Moreno, Rodríguez, López, Gomez, Baena, Coutinho, Verdú, García, Uche. (4-2-3-1).

Gijon

Sporting gave themselves the slightest glimmer of hope with a 2-1 win over Rayo Vallecano last time out to move to within six points of safety. Roberto Canella and Alejandro Galvez return from suspension, however the former is expected to miss out again due to a back injury.

 

Gaston Sangoy and Mate Bilic were the goalscorers from Javier Clemente's side and both are likely to be involved again as Clemente continues to leave top-scorer David Barral on the sidelines.

In Canella's absence Ayoze filled in at left-back against Rayo, but Clemente is expected to go with the more defensively minded Pedro Orfila for the trip to Barcelona.

 

Probable lineups : Pablo, Suárez, Botía, Gregory, Orfila, Lora, Garcia, Cuevas, Trejo, Colunga, Sangoy. (4-2-3-1). 

	Probable Lineups Statistical Comparision
	(43) 26	Goals	13 (34)
	(32) 20	Assists	10 (22)
	(6.5) 6.8	Average Ratings	6.6 (6.5)
	(1) 1.4	Shots pg	1.1 (1)
	(45%) 44%	Aerial Duel Success	47% (45%)
	(0.6) 0.6	Dribbles pg	0.5 (0.6)
	(2.1) 1.6	Tackles pg	1.9 (2.2)

Head to Head

La Liga ‎(LIGA)‎	17 Dec 2011	Sporting de Gijón 1 - Espanyol 2
La Liga ‎(LIGA)‎	24 Apr 2011	Sporting de Gijón 1 - Espanyol 0
La Liga ‎(LIGA)‎	5 Dec 2010	Espanyol 1 - Sporting de Gijón 0
La Liga ‎(LIGA)‎	28 Mar 2010	Espanyol 0 - Sporting de Gijón 0
La Liga ‎(LIGA)‎	8 Nov 2009	Sporting de Gijón 1 - Espanyol 0

Prediction
Despite Espanyol's poor run of results, their performances haven't been all that bad and European football remains a possibility if they can finish the season strongly.

Sporting are obviously in even more desperate need of the points given their precarious situation in the bottom three, but they haven't won away since the beginning of December and are conceding far too many goals to stay up.

Espanyol's front four of Coutinho, Sergio Garcia, Verdu and Uche were disappointing last week, but took Valencia to shreds the week before and they should have a field day against Sporting's makeshift backline.

Espanyol  3 - 1  Gijon