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Match round-up - First Division, Day 14

With the midweek cup ties running on to Friday, there were two league games scheduled for Monday evening, a public holiday in Spain. Eibar hosted Almería in the first of those, and despite a constant rainfall, the Basque side ran out 5-2 winners in an entertaining match. With only half an hour gone the locals were already three up, Piovaccari opening the scoring in the third minute after turning past Trujillo to run on and score. Saúl Berjón added a second with a shot which took a deflection off Fran Vélez, and Albentosa headed the third from a Saúl corner. Francisco immediately brought on Soriano for Thievy, and the veteran midfielder got one back shortly before the break from Trujillo’s headed pass. But some twelve minutes in to the second half Raúl Navas headed a fourth from a del Moral corner, and Lillo and Capa went close before del Moral stepped over Abraham’s cross to allow Capa to fire home the fifth. Edgar fired home an impressive volley three minutes later, and Corona hit the bar later on, but the visitors stay just above the drop zone, level on points with all the bottom three after seven league games without a win. Eibar though are up to ninth, the highest ranking of the three Basque teams. Who would have thought that at the start of the season?

Later in the evening Levante and Getafe drew 1-1, a result which keeps both teams in the lower reaches of the table. The visitors had the better of the opening minutes, Lafita hitting the post with a long shot and Yoda having a strike ruled out for what the referee considered to be a previous foul by Michel. Levante’s only response was a long shot over the top by Ivanschitz, and some ten minutes after the restart Lacen won the ball with a strong tackle in his own half and sent Yoda away for him to beat Diego Mariño. Soon afterwards Guaita had to be on his toes to keep out a header from Víctor Casadesús, but with twenty minutes to go he could do nothing to prevent substitute Rafael Martins from heading the equalizer following a long cross by Nikos. (08.12.14)

Barcelona kept pace with their two big rivals after a 5-1 victory over city neighbours Espanyol on Sunday afternoon, the win restoring them to second place and maintaining the two point gap behind leaders Real Madrid. Sergio García gave the visitors an early lead, cutting in to beat Bravo after Caicedo won the ball off Busquets, and both he and Víctor Sánchez had chances to add to the scoreline on quick breakaways later in the first half. Messi fired a free kick against the bar though, and Piqué, Luis Suárez and Jordi Alba all went close before Messi latched on to Xavi’s pass to curl a shot past Kiko Casilla on the stroke of half time. Some five minutes after the restart Messi added a second, battling past two defenders after collecting a centre from Luis Suárez, and three minutes later Piqué headed in a Rakitic corner, the first they have scored from in nine months. That ended Espanyol’s resistance, and Pedro came on to score a fourth after picking up a long ball from Jordi Alba, and then to lay back a return pass for Messi to complete his hat-trick with ten minutes to go.

Sevilla stay in fourth spot, still three points behind Atlético Madrid, after they beat Rayo Vallecano 0-1 in this week’s mid-day kick-off. The only goal came early on following a long punt upfield by Nico Pareja, Bacca just getting his head to the bounce to take the ball over Cristian Alvarez, and then running it in to the empty net. Vitolo almost repeated the act a few minutes later, this time the keeper catching his attempted lob, and Rayo replied with a Kakuta free kick which Beto dealt with comfortably. After the interval Paco Jémez went for broke, Leo Baptistao shooting just wide and Beto closing down Kakuta as he lined up to shoot. However that left Rayo short at the back, and Coke, Vitolo and Banega could all have taken advantage on quick counter-attacks later on. The Andalusians were left with ten men when Carriço picked up a second booking with three minutes to go, but even with Alvarez joining the attack there was no way through.

Valencia drop four points behind Sevilla though after they were held to a 1-1 draw at Granada, and after only picking up two points out of a possible twelve their campaign is starting to run out of steam. Negredo led the visiting attack once again, and he went close a couple of times before the break. Piti fired a shot over the top at the other end, and soon after the restart Foulquier turned another shot just wide. Negredo hit the post with an angled shot a few minutes later, and El-Arabi got the ball in the net only to be pulled up for a non-existent offside. With seven minutes to go Negredo finally got his first goal for his new club, controlling a short pass by De Paul before volleying a shot past Roberto. However soon afterwards substitute Alcácer was red-carded for an off-the-ball incident with Juan Carlos, and with a minute to go Isaac Success bundled the ball in to the net (this time from an offside position!) after an attempted punched clearance by Alves deflected off Foulquier. A tenth game in a row without a win for Caparrós’s side, although the point keeps them two above the drop zone for now.

Meanwhile Villarreal are back up to sixth after a 4-0 win over Real Sociedad, the result taking them to within a point of Valencia in the table. Canales fired an early free kick past the post, but after that local keeper Sergio Asenjo was a mere spectator. A Vietto shot and a Bruno free kick failed to find the target, and Zubikarai had to keep out Uche and Vietto either side of half time. Vietto hit the post a few minutes in to the second half, and soon afterwards Bruno opened the scoring with another free kick which hit the bar and went in off the back of the keeper. Vietto struck the upright again after that, and Cheryshev made it two with an angled shot after Uche poked the ball across the area. With a quarter of an hour to go Marcelino brought on Moi Gómez, and he helped himself to two more in the next ten minutes, the first with a shot in to the roof of the net after connecting with a return pass from Cheryshev, and the second with an angled shot which squeezed under the body of Zubikarai. A reality check for David Moyes, who still has a lot of work to do. (07.12.14)

Leaders Real Madrid made it an eighteenth win on the trot after beating Celta 3-0 on Saturday evening, equaling the previous record held by Barcelona. And once again Cristiano Ronaldo was the hero of the night with all three goals, his 23 rd hat-trick in the league, which also was a new record. Ronaldo’s first came from a hotly disputed penalty when he fell under a challenge by Jonny shortly before the break, referee Undiano Mallenco waving away claims that he had dived. Ramos and Ronaldo had missed chances before that, and with half time approaching Sergio Alvarez had to be at his best to turn a shot from James round the post. The visitors had hardly approached the Madrid goal in the first half, but Orellana fired a shot just wide of the upright soon after the restart. Alvarez did well to block a fierce shot by Bale a few minutes later though, and Ronaldo scored his second of the night with a first time volley after Cabral could only head a Fontàs back pass up in the air. Nolito did go close a couple of times after that, but with ten minutes to go Ronaldo got on the end of Marcelo’s cross to complete yet another hat-trick, taking his tally in the league this season to an amazing 23 goals.

Atlético Madrid stay four points behind their city neighbours after they beat Elche 0-2 earlier in the afternoon, a result which takes them above Barcelona pending their game on Sunday. José María Giménez opened the scoring for Simeone’s side with a well-taken shot following a set-piece corner in the seventeenth minute, although there were doubts as to whether Turan was offside in the build up. Moyà had to be on his toes later in the first half to push a long effort by Fajr round the post, but eight minutes after the break Mandzukic made it two, running on to a pass over the top from Gabi before shooting low inside Tyton’s near post. The locals had only won one of their last eleven matches, but they tried to get back in the game, Victor Rodríguez curling a shot just wide of the post, and Enzo Roco seeing his header cleared by a defender. Another defeat though, and they drop to the bottom of the table after results elsewhere went against them later in the day.

Last week’s bottom club Córdoba finally recorded their first win of the season after beating Athletic Bilbao 0-1 in the San Mamés stadium. Heavy rain fell throughout the game, and midway through the first half an attempted back pass by Iturraspe didn’t reach Gurpegui, and Ghilas picked up the ball and ran on to fire a shot past Iraizoz. With Aduríz injured, Valverde gave a first team debut to Iñaki Williams, and the B team striker set up Iturraspe for him to shoot over the bar, and then had a penalty appeal turned down. Susaeta came on for Williams at the break and almost immediately shot just wide, and De Marcos tried his luck with a couple of headers. But despite having sixteen corners the Basque side could not find the route to goal, and the Andalusians could have won by a bigger scoreline had Campabadal and Ghilas been able to take advantage of quick breakaways later on in the second half.

Córdoba also go above Deportivo, who lost 0-1 to Málaga in the last match of the evening. The two teams had played out a 1-1 draw in the cup only three days ago, and this time the locals had an early chance to take the lead when Postiga fell under a challenge from Kameni inside the area. The keeper though saved Cavaleiro’s spot kick, and soon afterwards made another good stop from Postiga when the striker got free on goal. Some twenty minutes in to the first half however Sergi Darder got what was to prove the only goal, picking up Fabricio’s wayward clearance outside of the area and firing a long shot back past the keeper. Fabricio did well to keep out Samuel a few minutes later, and a couple of minutes after the break Cavaleiro rolled a shot against the post. Weligton had a headed goal ruled out at the other end for offside and Duda fired a shot just wide of the upright, but in the end Kameni had to come to the rescue with two more brilliant saves from Toché. Depo are now next to bottom after only picking up two points in their last six games, but Javi Gracia’s side are going strong, the win taking them up to sixth pending the rest of the weekend’s games. (06.12.14)