ESPANYOL v SEVILLA TICKETS, Sunday, December 3, 2006: Estadi Olimpic EURO CHAMPS SET ESPANYOL TEST

Having questioend in which direction Espanyol are heading in recent weeks, the team appears to have finally given an answer itself as they moved into mid-table over the past fortnight.
A victory against Athletic Bilbao in Montju’ic was followed up with a useful draw away at Real Betis, meaning that los Periquitos are now unbeaten in eight league games.
That run stretches back until late September and, although it may not always have been pretty, is an impressive statistic that coach Ernesto Valverde must take credit for.
What has also been very encouraging is the team’s apparent refusal to accept defeat as the last couple of outings have proven.
Standing at 2-2 in minute 94 of the match against Athletic, Walter Pandiani fired in a late, late winning goal and then repeated the trick at Betis as he netted the leveller in minute 95 to ensure that Espanyol garnered four points from matches
that appeared to be profferiNg only one. While the home side gear up for another test, Sevilla have continued to maintain their pursuit of FC Barcelona at the top of the table and are very well-placed should the Blaugrana slip up. The last time that Juande Ramos’ team actually tasted defeat in any competition was against Barca in October, but since then the team has won four of their five domestic matches, while drawing the other.
Sevilla have been winning headlines, and rightly so, for their brand of attacking football as they utilise extremely fast wingers to break out on counter-attacks that often end in chances. They are proving to have found a successful system in Europe once again to boot as the 4-0 win at Grasshoppers in midweek proved.
While Espanyol will want to slow the pace of the game down when the two teams meet on Sunday, if they fail to then they could well be punished. This should be a real cracker.