Falling behind, Almere City was impatient. After the kick-off from the center circle, they launched a massive attack in an attempt to equalize the score as quickly as possible.
If the Espanyol team were to attack mainly, the results would not be good because they were not familiar with the coordination and were not in the state. However, sitting in the backcourt, it was easy to defeat Almere City's counterattack.
The Espanyol team has Zhao Yang, Reyes, Baptista and Jurado in the frontcourt who can also organize passes.
These people have only been training together for more than ten days. They may not be able to attack tough situations, but it is easy to counterattack a dozen Eredivisie B teams.
Only five minutes after scoring the first goal, the Espanyol team found another good opportunity.
Almere City couldn't attack hard. The Espanyol defender intercepted the opponent's shot and passed the ball to Reyes. Reyes did not stick to the ball this time and did not take credit for it. He received the ball and passed it directly forward to Zhao Yang.
During the counterattack, naturally no one was watching Zhao Yang.
Zhao Yang caught the ball and ran straight to the penalty area.
Baptistan ran towards the ribs of the penalty area, opening up space for Zhao Yang.
After Reyes passed the ball, he followed closely behind to meet Zhao Yang.
There are two defenders from Almere City in front of Zhao Yang.
Seeing Zhao Yang approaching, he was getting closer and closer to the penalty area. Worried about Zhao Yang's long shot, the defenders did not dare to retreat. One of them advanced instead of retreating and stepped forward to press Zhao Yang.
The weak team in the Dutch second division did not know how powerful Zhao Yang was. A defender came up to press, thinking that he could restrain Zhao Yang. However, as soon as he got close, Zhao Yang passed him by with a "fried ball" before he even made a move.
Another defender realized something was wrong and quickly came over to cover, but Zhao Yang decisively gave the ball to the unguarded Baptistan.
Baptistan was eager to succeed, took a step after receiving the ball, raised his foot and shot into the far corner.
It was too late for Almere City's goalkeeper to get down. He reacted quickly, stretched out his foot and blocked the ball out of the baseline.
Although Jurado's subsequent corner kick did not go in, the city of Almere was already frightened, and the following offense was much more cautious, not daring to press forward across the board.
The first half passed quickly between Almere City's hesitant attack and the Spaniard's sharp counterattack.
In the second half of the game, the Spaniard made no substitutions. Almere City replaced a midfielder and a forward to strengthen the attack.
Different from the first half, Almere City's attack in the second half was stronger and more determined, and threatened the Spaniard's goal many times.
However, the Spaniards are known for their toughness in La Liga. Their defense is not strong, but it is not something that Eredivisie teams can easily break.
Almere City got a lot of shooting opportunities, but the forwards were not strong enough and were not able to seize them.
Instead, in the 55th minute of the second half, the Spaniard once again scored Almere City's goal with a counterattack.
This counterattack was very simple. Almere City's shot was blocked by the Spanish defender with his body, and then he hit a long pass forward.
Baptistan was very lucky and got the spot. When he saw Zhao Yang's alert advance, he immediately headed the ball behind the defender.
Zhao Yang originally wanted to grab the ball in the air, but when he saw that the ball was already within Baptisto's control, he immediately moved forward and got a chance to score the ball alone.
Zhao Yang drove directly into the penalty area.
Almere goalkeeper attacks.
If it weren't for a friendly match, Zhao Yang would have shot right when he started.
But now, Zhao Yang continued to move forward, until the distance between the two sides was almost five meters, Zhao Yang made a slight move, passed the goalkeeper, took the ball to the small penalty area, and pushed the ball into the empty goal, changing the score to
2:0.
After this goal, the Spaniards played more easily. Ten minutes later, relying on the counterattack of the front three, the Spaniards once again broke through the gate of Almere City and turned the score into 3:0.
This time it was Reyes who scored the goal, and Zhao Yang provided the assist.
Zhao Yang had already scored two goals, and he could complete the hat trick by scoring one more goal. However, when facing the goalkeeper at the front of the penalty area, Zhao Yang chose a cross pass, allowing Reyes to score his first goal after joining the Espanyol.
ball.
Reyes is also a well-known star. After joining Espanyol with a high salary, fans have high expectations for him. They hope that he can replace Asensio and help Espanyol achieve better results.
This is also the reason why Reyes played a little alone in the first warm-up game.
After scoring this goal, Reyes' pressure was greatly reduced, so his impression of Zhao Yang immediately improved. He felt that this young man did not get carried away as soon as he became famous, and he was a good teammate.
After Zhao Yang and Reyes scored, the Spaniard took a three-goal lead and the victory was determined. Sergio also made timely substitution adjustments.
Zhao Yang and Reyes took a break, Caicedo and Moreno came on, and formed a three-point arrow with Baptistan, still following the previous tactical play.
Almere City was playing at home, and there were thousands of home fans watching the game. They were beaten so badly by the Spaniards that the players and coaches felt ashamed. At the last moment, they gave it a try, hoping to save some face.
After the Spaniard took a three-goal lead, they were a little slack and were pulled back by one goal by Almere City.
However, the new players Caicedo and Moreno are not ordinary people. Almere City invested too many people in the attack and the defense was empty. The Spaniards seized the opportunity to counterattack. Moreno scored two goals in a row.
In the end, they were defeated by Espanyol 1:5 at home.
The Espanyol team only drew with Utrecht in the first warm-up match and only scored one goal. The team was in poor condition.
After the game, many media criticized the Spaniard's frontcourt combination, believing that the newly introduced players were not as good as the original old players.
Reyes was abandoned by Atletico Madrid and is no longer as brave as he once was. Baptisto has poor confrontation and soft style of play. Jurado does not have Asensio's talent. Instead of reusing these three people, it is better to let Zhao Yang
Dropping back into the midfield, Caicedo and Moreno act as forwards.
In such a public opinion environment, not only Reyes and Baptisto are under great pressure, but even head coach Sergio needs a big win urgently.
In the second warm-up match, the Spaniards won a 4-goal victory and scored 5 goals. Although the opponent was only an Eredivisie B team, it also made the Spaniards breathe a sigh of relief.
After the game, the Spaniard’s new No. 10 Zhao Yang.
When head coach Sergio was interviewed, he was very satisfied with the team's current state and specifically praised the three new players.
"We have entered the game and I believe that before the season starts, we will be even better than last season."
"Reyes has rich experience, can pass and shoot, Baptisto is active in running, has a high football intelligence, and can connect the team. Jurado is no less organized than Asensio. The Spaniard has these three players joining him.
, our strength has greatly increased, and we are confident that we can achieve better results in the next games."