La Liga Round-Up: Las Palmas earn big win, Rayo dispatch Alaves, Villarreal beat Atletico

Spanish Leagues
By premiernews
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Here is what happened on Saturday in the 11th day in La Liga, before the Clasico, with some great results.

Real Valladolid 1-2 Villarreal

Villarreal bounced back from a disappointing draw with Getafe last week and were ahead on the half hour through Thierry Barry. The Yellow Submarine was in control for most of the match, but a penalty by Moussa Sylla on the hour mark leveled it.

However Villarreal he huffed and puffed, and eventually defeated the resistance in Jose Zorrilla. Ayoze Perez grabbed his seventh goal off the bench with just six minutes to go, earning a deserved three points for Marcelino Garcia Toral's side. The fact that Valladolid goalkeeper Karl Hein won the man of the match award was also symbolic of La Pucela's struggles.

Valladolid remains in the drop zone, and has three defeats in its last four at home. Villarreal are up to third ahead of Atletico Madrid, and at this point, they look good enough to challenge Diego Simeone's side for that spot.

Rayo Vallecano 1-0 Alaves

Inigo Perez's side started brightly, forcing good saves from Antonio Sivera in the Alaves goal, but their plan was ripped to shreds after 20 minutes when Abdul Mumin was sent off for a late challenge man on Toni Martinez.

Alaves took out a defender and went more on the attack, but was not completely convincing going forward. Agustin Batalla was forced into action on three occasions, coming up big for Rayo, but neither home side were out of the game. With just 10 minutes to go, brilliant work by Alvaro Garcia allowed Gerard Gumbau to put the ball through. He formed a beautiful shot towards the top corner, which Sivera pointed over the bar, and unfortunately for him, it deflected for an own goal when it landed.

Even a goal down, the Basque side struggled to get much out of Batalla, and Rayo looked more likely in the closing stages, pulling off another pair of saves from Sivera. El Glorioso is in 14th place, only two points above the drop now, while Ray shoot up to seventh, just one point away from European football.

Las Palmas 1-0 Girona

The Palms had gone 23 games and eight months without a win when Diego Martinez arrived, locked at the bottom of the table. His side made it two wins out of two under him, and pulled out of the drop zone in the process, in a frustrating defeat for Girona.

The Catalan side took the lead through a brilliant strike off the boot of Donny van de Beek, but the referee disallowed it for a soft foul on Alex Suarez, who ran into the back of Bojan's arm Miovski as he left it. Michel Sanchez, very frustrated, had little reason to relax any more after that.

As Las Palmas re-entered the game, Girona suffered another injury, with right-back Alejandro Frances limping off just before half-time. As they replaced him, Viti's cross was allowed to bounce into the box, and left back Alex Munoz fired into the corner for his third of the season – on the same side Frances would have been on.

Las Palmas captain Kirian Rodriguez could have made things more comfortable, failing to convert an open goal, but it was a second half of attrition for the islanders. They defended with everything they had, in front of the excellent Jasper Cillessen, who made several good saves to preserve their clean sheet.

Evidence of Girona's frustration was in a red card for reserve goalkeeper Juan Carlos, who was dismissed for dissent. They are 13, with only three points separating them from Las Palmas. They are fresh out of the relegation zone after starting the week locked at the bottom, sitting 17th.





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