Espanyol-Athletic

Oh, bugger. I had a nice long post with news about the match tomorrow and one wrong click and it's gone.

Basically Gorka Iraizoz is coming back to Espanyol tomorrow as Athletic's goalkeeper. Espanyol's goalkeeper for the past five years has some mixed feelings, saying that he never expected to play against Espanyol and that it is surreal.

Luis Garcia has come out against rotation, but reminded the public it was the coach's decision. He felt fit enough to play every game, and said that the ultimate goal was to play for the team's benefit. He's been receiving some attention for the Premiership as well, with Sport claiming his agent has been receiving calls from the Premiership about the Asturian forward.

And it's one year to the day until Espanyol's new ground at Cornella-El Prat is completed. Three years ago, president Daniel Sanchez Llibre exhorted the workers to "Start, already!" as they began building a replacement for the club's beloved Sarria. The new ground, costing a pretty modest sum of 53 million euros, will seat 40,000 and the club are looking at securing UEFA 4-star status, allowing the new ground to host UEFA Cup finals (perhaps ones involving Espanyol?). Despite Llibre and fans unofficially calling the ground Nou Sarria, a sponsor will pay for the ground's name to help offset costs. The club expect to begin playing at the Nou Sarria in January 2009.

Finally, tomorrow's game is at 4 p.m. UK time, and is not on Sky. If the wonders of the Internet cannot find a picture, Marca has the best text commentary, in your author's opinion.