Play off hopes dealt a blow
Real Oviedo's play off hopes were dealt a blow after a timid display against fellow promotion hopefuls Leganes.
Leganes looked the hungrier and more determined outfit throughout although only a penalty save denied the hosts a point.
Stand in coach Generelo made 3 changes from the weekends defeat at Almeria with Hervias coming in for the injured Borja Valle. Bautista and Edu Bedia were also preferred to Pena and Michel.
The visitors who were looking to put their own weekend disappointment behind them as they were surprisingly beaten at home by Huesca started well. After just 30 seconds Pablo Insua fired an effort wide from 25 yards. Oviedo hit back within a minute when Susaeta got on the end of a Bautista cross to the far post but wildly lashed his effort wide.
Leganes came close to opening the scoring on 20 minutes when Brazilian Gabriel fired a left footed drive from 25 yards but Mino managed to get a fingertip to it and deflect it onto the bar and out to safety.
Oviedo’s first attempt on target came five minutes before half time when Hervias teed up Toche but his angled drive was palmed away by Serantes in the Leganes goal.
On the stroke of half time David Fernandez came to Oviedo's rescue when he cleared a low cross in the nick of time as Gabriel was poised to tap home.
The visitors were knocking on the door though and finally the breakthrough came on the hour mark. A free kick was curled into the area and after a scramble the ball fell to Gabriel who fired home low from 10 yards.
This seemed to wake Oviedo up at last as they tried hitting back straight away but Susaeta's shot from the edge of the box was saved. On 66 minutes came Oviedo's best chance. A ball into the left hand channel was chased by Toche who got to the edge of the area before going down under the challenge of former Oviedo defender Mantovani. The referee immediately pointed to the spot and Oviedo had a penalty. Replays suggested it was a lucky break for Oviedo as the challenge was outside the area and in truth was probably not even a foul. Unfortunately for Real Oviedo we couldn’t take advantage of the referee’s generosity as Susaeta's spot kick was saved by Serantes. Ruben Pena had a golden chance moments later when he tried chipping the onrushing Mino but the Oviedo keeper made a great save.
The keeper was called into action again on 80 minutes when he denied Szymanowski after he was set up by Ruben Pena.
The last ten minutes were a stop start event as Leganes broke up play as much as possible with Serantes going down "injured" on 3 separate occasions and the match ended 0-1 to the visitors. We cannot argue with the score line in all honesty though as we were second best for the vast majority of the game. It’s a massive win for Leganes who are potentially just 90 minutes away from their first ever promotion to La liga if they win at weekend and Gimnastic don’t. As for Real Oviedo we currently lie in 9th place in the table yet are just 2 points behind 4th place. We have 2 games left and the equation is a simple one. We must win them both to stand a realistic chance to finish in the play off spots. On Sunday we face the first of these games with a mouth-watering trip to Zaragoza.
Hala Oviedo!
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