First Division - Day 8

Villarreal 1 - Celta 2

Villarreal: Areola; Mario Gaspar, Eric Bailly, Víctor Ruíz, Jaume Costa; Samuel (Denis Suárez 51‘), Manu Trigueros, Tomás Pina, Nahuel (Rukavina 51’); Leo Baptistao (Bakambu 59‘), Soldado. 4-4-2.
Celta: Sergio Alvarez; Hugo Mallo, Cabral, Sergi Gómez, Jonny; Daniel Wass (Radoja 86‘), Augusto Fernández, Pablo Hernández (Bongonda 73‘); Orellana, Iago Aspas (Guidetti 81‘), Nolito. 4-3-3.

Goals:
0-1. 42. Orellana. Picked up Augusto pass and fired long shot wide of Areola.
1-1. 67. Denis Suárez. Struck shot from edge of area which deflected off Mallo.
1-2. 90. Nolito. Turned angled shot past keeper after Orellana shot came off bar.

Yellow cards: Augusto Fernández 36’, Eric Bailly 36’, 47’, Sergi Gómez 37’, Daniel Wass 43’, Soldado 71’ / red cards: Eric Bailly 47’.

This season’s two revelation sides, Villarreal and Celta, met on Sunday lunchtime, the Galicians coming away 1-2 victors to move above their hosts and join Real Madrid and Barcelona at the top of the table. The locals started strongly, Leo Baptistao and Trigueros going close, and Mario bringing a good save out of Sergio Alvarez. However with three minutes to go to the break Orellana opened the scoring against the run of play with a long shot past Areola, and before the half time whistle Nolito fired an angled shot against the far post. Some two minutes after the restart things got worse for the locals when Eric Bailly was sent off for a second bookable offence, and soon afterwards Iago Aspas wasted two good opportunities to extend the lead. Midway through the second half though Denis Suárez levelled the scores with a shot which took a deflection off Hugo Mallo, but with the game coming to an end Nolito fired home the winner after a shot from Orellana came back off the bar. The defeat meant that Villarreal drop from first to fifth after Atlético Madrid won later in the evening.