Espanyol vs Granada Predictions

Espanyol have been in competitive action since July after beginning their campaign in Europa League Qualifying, and their hard yards have paid off as they secured a spot in the Group Stage on Thursday with a 2-2 away draw against Zorya, beating the Ukrainian outfit 5-3 on aggregate.

Periquitos now need to get their La Liga season up and running after picking up just one point from a possible six so far and they will fancy their chances of doing so when they welcome newly promoted Granada to RCDE Stadium on Sunday.

It’s understandable that Espanyol have wanted to prioritise reaching the Europa League Group Stage – the club’s forays into continental competition have been few and far between over the past couple of decades and they did tremendously well to finish 7^th last term.

Europa League commitments appear to have had an effect on them so far however, whilst Periquitos are also adapting to life under new manager David Gallego after Rubi upped sticks to join Real Betis during the summer.

A 0-2 defeat at home to Sevilla on the opening day was a bit of a reality check for Espanyol following their excellent progress in 2018/19 and they turned in an extremely flat performance at Alaves on Matchday 2 when playing out a dour 0-0 stalemate. That result came just three days after their first leg against Zorya, so there have to be concerns about how Espanyol will fare this weekend following Thursday’s long trip to Ukraine.

A home game against newly promoted Granada looks like a fairly soft fixture for Periquitos on paper as they seek to bank their first La Liga victory of the season, but Nazaries shouldn’t be underestimated based on their start to life back in the top flight.

Whilst like Espanyol they have a draw and a defeat to their name two matches in, they fought back superbly from 4-2 down at Villarreal on the opening day to seal a point and were only edged out 0-1 by Sevilla last Friday.

Nazaries look lively going forward with talented players such as Fede Vico, Antonio Puertas and Darwin Machis in their ranks and they also have veteran No.9 Roberto Soldado leading the line. The visitors look more than capable of finding the net in this game and they have managed to score in each of their last six league outings on the road.

Indeed, both teams to score looks the right call here despite Espanyol failing to hit the net in their opening two league games. Periquitos have been prolific in Europe thus far and they did score in ten of their last 11 home league games in 2018/19.

Both teams have scored in each of the last six meetings between the pair, so odds of around evens definitely look fair for a repeat this Sunday. Our marginal preference is for Espanyol to pinch all three points and we’re going for a 2-1 correct score in favour of the hosts – a result posted by Periquitos in three of those last half dozen encounters between the teams.