País Vasco - Rosé X Reader

Chapter 18 | Espanyol

With the decision of staying with Athletic Club Bilbao settled, you immediately rejoined first team training and was straight back into the match day squad. After winning the first three games against RCD Mallorca, Valencia and Cadiz, the team was on a very good run in the La Liga. The next game was against Espanyol, and with the form the club was in, it will probably be an easy win for the club. The good news is that the club has no injuries so they have the strongest team at disposal and despite all the speculation around you and the situation you were in with the fans, the manager assured you that you will be in the team against Espanyol no matter what.

Despite the manager promising that you will in the team against Espanyol, come match day you found out that you would be starting on the bench for this game. You were involved in the match day squad which was what the manager told you, but there was no denying that you were gutted that you were not in the starting lineup. Nevertheless, it was probably for the best as every time you started a game for the club, the fans either leave the stadium or start booing you, voicing their displeasure of you in the club.

First Half

Once again, you found yourself on the bench of the San Memés which reminded you of your Athletic Club Bilbao debut. Watching your team from the sidelines is not what a footballer want to do, but sometimes it happens and for now you would have to watch Bilbao take on Espanyol from the sidelines. At least now that you were sat beneath the dugout, the fans couldn't really spot you which meant the fans were concentrated on cheering for the team instead of booing you.

Espanyol was playing on the fluid counter attack. Once again, similar to the Mallorca game, the opponent were sitting back and trying to hit with the counter attack. The only difference was that Espanyol only had three players that they could really rely on. Their front three of Joselu, Martin Braithwaite and Javier Puado. Every time they get the ball from the back, they just aim for the front three and hoof the ball forwards letting the attacking trio do their jobs. It was very easy to defend on paper, but on the pitch, it was a different story.

Without Yuri Berchiche on left back, Bilbao was struggling to not only defend from Javier Puado, but also going forward. Yuri Berchiche was one of the main attacking threats of the team and Iñigo Lekue at left back it was just not the same. Both attacking wise and defending wise. It was a pretty even contest in the first half, with both teams having similar attacking threats and defensively both teams were pretty solid. Nobody was really getting the upper hand in this game yet and sure enough the first half ended with a stalemate.

Half Time 

Athletic Club Bilbao 0-0 RCD Espanyol de Barcelona

Second Half

The second half kicked off and both teams returned with basically the same game plan as the first half. Clearly Espanyol are happy with the result so far, a 0-0 draw and a point on the road. However, you know that Bilbao was not happy with a draw, you were not happy with the team getting a draw. Something needed to be changed if the team wanted to win the game, and it was going to be on the left side of the pitch. Iñigo Lekue was just not doing as good as a job as Yuri Berichiche attacking wise. Sure enough the manager notices this as well as he told yourself, Raul Garcia, Gorka Guruzeta and Jon Morcillo to prepare to warm up, some very attacking options on the bench.

56th Minute

After around 5 minute of warming up, the manager suddenly waved at the four of you, signalling you all to go over for a briefing. You thought to yourself that this was going to be the moment you go on the pitch and change the game like you did on your debut.

"Right, our attacking is a bit weak. So we'll put on another striker. Gorka, you'll go in on for Nico Williams and we'll move Iker Munian onto the wing playing a 4-4-2 formation" Ernesto Valverde said revealing his tactics

71st Minute

Despite bringing on an extra striker, Bilbao was still struggling to score a goal. To add injury to insult, star striker Iñaki Williams seemed to have had bad cramp signalling that he needed to come off the pitch. Time for another substitution then, but instead of waving you over, the manager waved over veteran Raúl Garcia for the next substitution. You were frustrated but can't complain as in that situation, bringing in a veteran would be the more appropriate option.

83rd Minute

Mikel Vesga on the ball currently as Bilbao gathered the ball in midfield. But a misplaced pass from Mikel Vesga gave the possession to Espanyol Vinicius Souza intercepted the pass and quickly laid it off Sergi Darder who quickly plays a through ball to Martin Braithwaite. Martin Braithwaite uses his strength to hold off Dani Vivian and turns to run past Yeray Alvarez which put hims through on goal. One on one with Unai Simon, a calm and composed Martin Braithwaite tucks the ball into the bottom corner, nothing Unai Simon can do for that one as the away end celebrated with cheers. The deadlock has finally been broken and it was the visitors Espanyol who broke the deadlock.

Athletic Club Bilbao 0-1 RCD Espanyol de Barcelona

84th Minute

Almost immediately after the goal, the manager called you over. It was finally time to make the change and bring you on to see if you could change the game. The change happened at the next dead ball after kickoff as Ernesto Valverde continued giving you some final instructions before sending you onto the pitch.

"Right that leaves us no choice, Y/N you need to go on. Iñigo will have to make way for you. Just do your thing, I have faith in you that you can change the game over and turn this loss into a draw, maybe even a win" Ernesto Valverde said.

"Also, pass this message to Alex tell him that he will be in left back position for the final few minutes of the game. We need to attack" Ernesto Valverde added right as he was about to send you on.

This was it, you didn't have much time. To be specific you have 6 minutes plus whatever extra time the referee added on to turn this loss into a draw. As you ran onto the pitch, the fans booed you like always, but you ignored it and made some gestures at Alex Berenguer telling him his positional change.

90th + 8 Minute

Even with your best efforts, you still couldn't change anything. There was just not enough time on the clock, you did not have enough touches which was probably a good thing for the fans because this leaves less opportunities for the fans to boo. But this was not good for Bilbao and yourself. There really wasn't much you could do. From the 14 minutes of football you had today, you really tried your best to see if you have any opportunities to score a goal. But as the full time whistle blew, the truth was inevitable. After three straight wins in the start of the season, Athletic Club Bilbao finally suffers their first loss of the season in the fourth game of the 2022/23 La Liga campaign. Just hope that this wasn't the start of a slump.

Athletic Club Bilbao 0-1 RCD Espanyol de Barcelona

Full Time