Rayo Vallecano's European dreams took a blow with a loss at home, Celta Vigo got their first win since the beginning of the year and Real Betis finally showed back up with a comprehensive defeat of Malaga. Here's a recap of today's action from Spain.
La Liga Sunday: Celta Vigo and Real Betis finally win, Rayo suffer tough home defeat
Celta Vigo and Real Betis both broke winless droughts while Malaga’s loss allowed Sociedad and Valencia to close the gap on fourth. Vallecano’s European hopes took a blow with a home loss against Valladolid.
Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno
Rayo Vallecano 1-2 Real Valladolid
Rayo's European dreams took a blow today thanks to a 2-1 loss at home to Real Valladolid. The loss allowed Sociedad and Valencia to keep their cushion between themselves and Rayo in 7th place.
After 70 minutes of attractive passing that yielded view actually chance on goal, Valladolid took the lead the lead in the 71st minute on an own goal.Alberto Bueno chipped a free kick in front of the net that was misjudged by Ruben. The keeper mistimed his jump to claim the ball and it got past him, bouncing off Jordi Amat’s head and into the empty net.
Amat immediately redeemed himself after the restart, beating Daniel Hernandez with an audacious looping shoot from inside the midfield line to quickly equalize for Rayo.
In the 80th minute, Rayo’s hopes of continuing their perfect home record were dashed when Alejandro Galvez lost the ball to Bueno. The midfielder raced towards goal and centered to Manucho for an easy tap-in winner.
Celta Vigo 2-1 Granda
Celta didn't escape the drop zone with their win over Granada today, but they did keep put some more pressure of Real Zaragoza by closing the gap to only two points. At this point, that's not a bad thing especially considering that Celta hadn't won a match since January 6th. It was also a nice to start to new head coach Abel Resino's reign in charge of Celta.
Iago Aspas put Celta in the lead in the 24th minute, scoring from close range but Granada answered back just four minutes later thanks to a volley shot from Odion Ighalo. It took awhile for the winner to come but Celta won’t complain.
Mario Bermejo got the winner in the 81st minute minute with an aesthetically odd mis-hit shot, but that hardly matters as long as it goes in the back of net.
Click link for a full match report.
Real Betis 3-0 Malaga
Betis was shot out of a cannon in the first half scoring four goals, of which only three counted...I’ll explain. The first two goals for Betis came off corners and some poor marking by Malaga. Jorge Molina scored in the 1st minute off a header at the near post that deflected off Wilfredo Caballero’s hands. Their second came in the 28th minute when Mario was left unmarked in the middle of the box on a corner and headed the ball in.
Betis appeared to have a third goal in the 34th minute when Molina's penalty kick hit off the crossbar and crossed the line before rebounding out into the box. The linesman missed the ball crossing and play when on. The follow up shot was miraculously saved by Caballero and the third shot went wide. Dorlan Pabon did get Betis their third goal in stoppage time, scoring with a clever shot from an extreme angle.
Betis just played out the second half and were helped in the process by a red card to Ignacio Camacho early in the half.
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