Alavés 1 - Espanyol 0

Alavés: Herrera; Contra, Karmona, Téllez, Geli; Desio, Pablo; Jordi Cruyff (Azkoitia 80'), Magno (Eggen 80'), Tomic; Javi Moreno (Iván Alonso 70'). 4-2-3-1.
Espanyol: Mora; Cristóbal, Nando, Pochettino, Roger; Morales, Galca; Toni Velamazán (Arteaga 57'), Sergio (Manel 70'), Nan Ribera; Oscar (Serrano 70'). 4-2-3-1.

Team changes: Alavés: Magno for Azkoitia / Espanyol: Morales, Nan Ribera for Arteaga, Martín Posse.

Goals:
1-0. 75. Iván Alonso. Placed ball past keeper after Tomic squared across goal.

Alavés returned to their old habits, winning this match by a single goal late in the game after suffocating the opposition for much of the 90 minutes. Last season their 1-0 victories were legend, (although very dull legend), and although the names of some of the actors have changed, the play is still the same. The leading boy this time was Iván Alonso, cousin of Valencia's Diego, who only made his entry on stage with twenty minutes to go. That was enough though, and ably assisted by supporting actor Ivan Tomic, he gave the audience something to applaud with a goal only five minutes after coming on.

Although they have an important UEFA cup game on Thursday (as do Espanyol) Mané kept a largely unchanged side, only drafting in Magno for Azkoitia, who broke a toe which will probably keep him out for a couple of months. Espanyol manager Paco Flores decided to include two players who were on loan at Mendizorroza last season, Morales and Nan Ribera, partly hoping they would be especially motivated for this game, and partly to stick two fingers up at the Alavés manager, who was not a little unhappy last summer about losing two of his first choice players under controversial circumstances. Who was not included in the squad was Raúl Tamudo, returning to Barcelona from Glasgow after failing a medical check which cancelled his forthcoming transfer to Rangers. The Espanyol medical staff disagreed with Rangers' findings that the player needed an operation after picking up an injury at the Olympic games, and although they considered it too early for the player to play in this game, he may well be included in the team for their Thursday night UEFA cup tie.

After an even start, the match appeared to be heading to a goal-less draw, with both defences dominating and Herrera and Mora comfortably saving anything that got past the back line. However Tomic, the home side's best player on the night, opened up a breach for Alonso to finally get the ball past Mora. Immediately afterwards Serrano had Espanyol's best chance of the game, but Herrera produced a fine save to deny the substitute, another player returning to his old hunting ground. In the last minute referee Muñiz Fernández sent off Espanyol's captain Arteaga (a second half substitute today) for a second bookable offence as the Catalan side showed their frustrations at losing for the second time in four days. They drop down to second to bottom and need a good result against Grazer in the UEFA cup midweek to restore their morale. Alavés return to the UEFA cup positions in fifth place, and go on to their match in this year's edition at Drammen in Norway against Lillestrom full of confidence. Let the play go on.