Espanyol 4 - Grazer 0

Espanyol: Mora; Cristóbal, Nando, Pochettino, Roger (Navas 54'); Velamazán, Sergio, Galca, Arteaga; Martín Posse (Nan Ribera 79'), Tamudo (Serrano 60'). 4-4-2.

Goals:
1-0. 15. Tamudo. Following up after keeper blocked Posse's shot.
2-0. 19. Galca (penalty). After Akoto pulled Pochettino down by his shirt.
3-0. 29. Sergio. Shot from outside of area which deflected off Ehmann's heel.
4-0. 45. Sergio. Rapid passing move with Arteaga and scored with outside of foot.

Espanyol finally rediscovered the goal trail against a weak Grazer side who were completely outclassed in the first half. Their inspiration was the return of Raúl Tamudo, who had not played this season after picking up a knee injury in the final of the Olympic games football competition in Sydney. Short of funds, Espanyol were expected to sell the young striker to Glasgow Rangers this week, but Tamudo failed a medical check because of the injury and the move was put on hold. Espanyol's own doctors disagreed with the Scottish clubs findings (which may have been for political reasons, with transfer laws due to change soon), and Tamudo was declared fit to start this match.

They certainly needed him, having only scored four times in five league games to date, and he didn't let them down, opening the scoring himself in typical poacher fashion after Schranz had blocked Posse's shot. That was after a quarter of an hour's play, and two minutes later his side got another, Akoto naively pulling on Pochettino's shirt in the penalty area. Argentinian footballers spend one day's training a week at the diving boards in their local swimming pool, and the defender fell like a stone in front of Czech referee Miroslav Liba. The crowd awarded Pochettino 6.0, 5.9, 5.8, 5.9 and 5.3 from the Austrian judge, but more importantly the referee bought it and Galca converted the resultant penalty kick. Akoto was booked for the foul, and a few minutes later the youngster committed professional suicide with a two footed tackle from behind on an Espanyol player, leaving his side with ten men. Sergio then added two more, the first a fortunate goal which took a deflection off a defender, but the second was a beauty on the stroke of half time, with one touch football as Arteaga played it through for the young midfielder to place the ball past the keeper with the outside of his foot.

Grazer, who had already had to change their centre forward Akwuegbu to put on an extra defender after the sending off, made their second change at the interval, bringing on Potscher for Pamic. On the hour mark Flores decided to pull off Tamudo, still not 100% match fit, and he left the field to a standing ovation. After that it was a damage limitation exercise for Grazer and consolidation for Espanyol, who kept up their attacks but without the accuracy of the first half. Grazer never troubled Mora throughout the whole 90 minutes and the 4-0 result should see them through, but the Catalan side must not fall victim to complacency in the second leg, especially after Zaragoza got a similar result in the last round and threw it away. Right now though their supporters left the ground euphoric, and the result was a much needed boost for their morale as they try and lift themselves out of the relegation zone in the league. Their financial difficulties continue, but Tamudo is back and that can only be good news.