Alavés 3 - Recreativo Huelva 0

Alavés: Dutruel; Geli, Karmona, Téllez, Llorens; Turiel, Pablo (Luis Helguera 70'); Astudillo, Ilie (Iván Alonso 72'), Magno (Jordi Cruyff 60'); Rubén Navarro. 4-2-3-1.
Recreativo: César; Galán, Iker Begoña, Yago, Espinola (Kaiku 48'); Camacho, Cubillo; Javi García, Mario Bermejo (Güiza 65'), Benítez (Almunia 55'); Xisco. 4-2-3-1.

Team changes: Alavés: Téllez, Pablo, Ilie, Rubén Navarro for Abelardo, Luis Helguera, Jordi Cruyff, Iván Alonso / Recreativo: Iker Begoña, Mario Bermejo, Xisco for Loren, Oscar Arpón, Raúl Molina.

Goals:
1-0. 10. Rubén Navarro. Turned ball in on near post from Magno cross.
2-0. 16. Magno. Won ball in area and hit shot which keeper deflected into net.
3-0. 56. Ilie. Bent free kick past wall into top corner of goal.

Alavés bounced back from their defeat in Europe to beat bottom side Recreativo Huelva 3-0. Mané's team didn't let their elimination from the UEFA cup at the hands of Besiktas get them down, although the manager did only keep his back four and his goalkeeper from Thursday night's starting line up in Turkey. With only three points separating the teams at the start of the match, a win would have taken the Andalucians level with their opponents. However within fifteen minutes that already seemed unlikely, as the more experienced strikers took advantage of Recre's inexperience at the top level. With ten minutes on the clock Magno got the ball across for Rubén Navarro to get ahead of Yago to score, and five minutes later Navarro returned the favour, setting up Magno for him to battle his way through a sleepy defence and make it two.

Huelva were missing veteran captain Loren, who had to pull out in the pre-match warm up with back problems, and their defence was full as nerves as Alavés looked to extend their lead, Magno going close again before the break. Lucas Alcaraz had no option though but to put on an extra forward early in the second half, Kaiku replacing Espinola, but soon afterwards referee Téllez Sánchez left the visitors with ten men after he sent off keeper César for handling outside of the area under a challenge form Ilie. New signing Almunia came on to take his place in goal, but his first touch was to pick the ball out of the net as Ilie struck the resulting free kick around the wall and wide of the keeper's reach. It was the end of a bad day for the first division new boys, and with Osasuna winning they are now two points adrift of the rest. Alavés can think themselves lucky that they had such an easy opponent after their midweek disappointment, and having now won two home games in a row they can start to concentrate on staying up for another season.