Villarreal and Rayo Vallecano start with wins in large part to mistakes from their opponents.
Mistakes propel Villarreal and Rayo Vallecano to wins in La Liga opener originally appeared on The Sporting News
On Friday, the La Liga season kicked off with two matches starting off with Girona vs Rayo Vallecano and ending off with Villarreal vs Real Oviedo.
Girona vs Rayo Vallecano
This game was pretty much over after the first half where Rayo took a commanding 3-0 lead. Rayo were the better team on the night but they were heavily helped by the nightmare game that Girona goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga had.
He gave away the ball in the 18th minute to Jorge De Frutos leading to him having an open net to shoot at. The second goal in the 20th minute wasn't on him as De Frutos put in an excellent pass to Alvaro Garcia to extend the lead. For the third goal, he lost the ball, fouled De Frutos in the box, and got sent off for the foul.
Isi Palazon converted from the spot, basically ending the game in the first half. Tsigankov gave a great pass to Joel Roca to cut the deficit in the 57th minute, but it was too little too late as the Madrid based team left with the three points.
Villarreal vs Real Oviedo
Real Oviedo are back in the first division after a 24 year absence and were welcomed by a Champions League caliber side in Villarreal.
It went as you'd expect as Villarreal peppered Oviedo's net but Oviedo were bailed out by heroics from goalkeeper Aaron Escandell who ended up with eight saves on the night. Eventually, a miscommunication between defender Juan Foyth and goalkeeper Luiz Junior led to a penalty for Oviedo in the 14th minute.
Veteran journeyman Salomon Rondon steps up and takes a pretty bad penalty that was saved by Luiz Junior's knee and that was Oviedo's best chance in the game.
Eventually, Villarreal's persistent attack broke through in the 29th minute with a header from Papa Gueye and a goal seven minutes later from Etta Eyong.
Villarreal didn't score again, but cruised through the game giving them three points to start their campaign.
Category: General Sports
