Villarreal too good for Malaga to earn first win of the season
The Yellow Submarine were the dominant force at La Rosaleda and took the lead 13 minutes before half-time. Rafael Santos Borre’s ran through the home defence before playing in Costa who had an easy task in scoring from close range.
Five minutes before half-time the visitors had the chance to double their lead as Borre was felled in the area by Weligton after the striker broke away to advance on goal. Bruno’s spot-kick was parried by Kameni however.
It wasn’t long before the visitors went two up though. On 44 minutes Sansone saw a shot batted away by Kanemi but the custodian was powerless to stop the Italian from scoring when the ball came back to him on the rebound.
Malaga upped the tempo after the break but the closest they came to scoring was when Keko saw his effort hit the side netting from a difficult angle. The visitors had a few chances themselves and Roberto Soriano should have scored his side’s third but the game petered out as Villarreal comfortably saw out the victory.
Unlucky Las Palmas undone at the death by Sevilla
Having been just minutes away from reclaiming their place at the top of La Liga, Las Palmas saw three points turn into none as they conceded two goals in the space of a few minutes at The Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium.
Pedro Tana gave the visitors the lead after 16 minutes when a shot from distance rebounded to him from the back of a Sevilla defender. The ball fell to the Las Palmas native on the left where he took control of the ball, evaded two would be challenges before making space for himself in a central position and then sending a rising strike crashing into the right hand corner of the net from 20 yards out.
The visitors endured a few scary moments from there but overall were good value for their lead in a rather tempestuous match which saw nine yellow cards flashed by the referee. The eighth of those yellow cards was to turn into a red as Pedro Bigas was booked for a second time barely three minutes from the end following a trip inside the box on Sevilla winger Vitolo.
After much protest from the visitors, Pablo Sarabia was eventually allowed to step up and blast his penalty off of the post and into the bottom right hand corner of the net beyond the despairing dive of Javi Varas.
The visitors were clearly frustrated to have their lead pegged back in a manner they felt was undeserved. From then on, Sevilla threw the kitchen sink at the visitors in search of what had looked an unlikely winner. The home side were finally rewarded with more than ten seconds extra of the allotted injury time of three minutes having been played.
A well delivered corner kick from Pablo Sarabia was swung deep into the six yard box and Carlos Fernandez rose highest to send his header just inside the far left hand post with Javi Varas stranded in the visitors’ goal.
There was to be no time left for Las Palmas to even restart the game as Sevilla sealed a victory reminiscent of Manchester United’s famous last gasp victory at the death of the 1999 UEFA Champions League final. With the win Sevilla overtake Las Palmas and go into second place with Los Amarillos dropping to third in the table.
