La Liga, Week 1: Villarreal comes from behind twice to defeat Almerica

The opening week in La Liga concluded today with three games, two of which featured second half comebacks. Here’s a recap of the action.

Elche’s first match in the top flight of Spanish football went well for 40 minutes but they were undone by two goals in four minutes as Rayo Vallecano eased to victory. Alberto Bueno had a massive day for Rayo scoring two goals and assisting on a third scored by Alberto Perea.

Sevilla have Atletico Madrid everything that could handle for 70 minutes but they faded late and conceded twice as Los Colchoneros pulled away for a 3-1 victory at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium.

Ten minutes before the halftime break Atletico Madrid broke through on a set piece. Sevilla committed the cardinal sin of leaving Diego Costa unmarked at the far past and the prolific striker right footed a deflected Koke corner kick past Beto.

Less than two minutes later, Verdú nearly doubled the Betis advantage, sending a curling ball just outside the far post.

The equalizer finally arrived in the 26th minute when Isco found Benzema loose in the box and the striker buried his shot past Stephan Andersen. No offside this time, only a 1-1 game.

In the 12th minute Lionel Messi scored his first goal of the season thanks to some more beautiful passing. Fabregas chested down the long ball in with his back to the goal, right onto the feet of Messi who played a quick one-two with Pedro Rodriguez and then blasted a low shot past Navas, making it 2-0 to the home side.

Barca extended the lead to 3-0 in the 24th minute when some heavy pressure from Dani Alves forced a turnover on the right side. Alves gained control and quickly sent the ball out to Messi who wasted no time finding Fabregas again behind the defensive line in the Levante box. Navas blocked Cec’s initial effort but Alves had worked his way into the area and finished of the rebound.

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The 2013-14 La Liga season kicked off on Saturday with three games that gave us a look at a couple European spot contenders and some potential relegation battlers.

Here’s a recap of all the action.