Coming into the contest on the back of successive LaLiga defeats, Espanyol started brightly in Catalonia, with Javier Hernández seeing a long-range strike smartly saved by Odysseas Vlachodimos.
The hosts remained on the front foot as the first half progressed, but clear-cut openings came at a premium, as Alex Calatrava fired a speculative effort wide from 25 yards.
Having failed to create anything of note in the opening period, Sevilla looked to up the ante at the start of the second half, but Arouna Sangante’s header was comfortably saved by Marko Dmitrovic.
Less than a minute later, Sangante was shown a straight red card, with the Sevilla centre-back bringing down Roberto Fernández as the last man.
Armed with the numerical advantage heading into the final half-hour, Espanyol thought they’d broken the deadlock in the 62nd minute, only for Omar El Hilali’s clinical strike to be ruled out for an offside. That nearly proved costly for the hosts, as Sevilla substitute Lucas Stassin saw a low effort thwarted by Dmitrovic.
Undeterred, debutant Stassin made no mistake with five minutes to go, as the Belgian forward latched onto a loose ball in the box and volleyed home expertly into the bottom corner.
That sparked Espanyol into life as Manolo González’s men pushed for a late leveller, and after Fernandez spurned a couple of chances, an equaliser finally arrived in the eighth minute of stoppage time, with Marcos Fernandez Sanchez converting a rebound from six yards to snatch a dramatic point at the death.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Edu Exposito (RCD Espanyol)
