First Division - Day 31

Las Palmas 2 - Valencia 1

Las Palmas: Javi Varas; David García, Lemos, Aythami, Dani Castellano; Roque; El Zhar (Vicente Gómez 70‘), Tana, Jonathan Viera (Araujo 75’), Momo (Montoro 83’); Willian José. 4-1-4-1.
Valencia: Diego Alves; Barragán, Mustafi, Aderlan Santos, Siqueira; Danilo Barbosa (Feghouli 62‘), Javi Fuego, Dani Parejo; Rodrigo, Paco Alcácer (Negredo 81’), Piatti (André Gomes 68’). 4-3-3.

Goals:
0-1. 03. Rodrigo. Intercepted poor Javi Varas pass and rolled ball into empty net.
1-1. 50. Jonathan Viera (penalty). After Javi Fuego pulled down Tana inside area.
2-1. 63. Mustafi (own goal). Deflected Aderlan Santos clearance past own keeper.

Yellow cards: Barragán 33’, Willian José 33’, Roque 36’, Piatti 37’, Javi Fuego 45’, Mustafi 68’.

Las Palmas came back from a goal down to beat Valencia 2-1 on Saturday, a result which took them two points above their opponents in the rankings. Pako Ayestarán was in charge of the Ches for the first time after Gary Neville was sacked midweek, and things seemed to be going his way when Rodrigo scored in only the second minute following a terrible mistake by Javi Varas. A few minutes later Lemos cleared off the line from Rodrigo with the keeper beaten, and Paco Alcácer was pulled up for a dubious offside when free on goal. However some five minutes in to the second half Jonathan Viera levelled it from the penalty spot after Javi Fuego pulled back Tana in the area, and a quarter of an hour later the Canary Islanders took the lead when Aderlan’s attempted clearance hit Mustafi and bounced back in to the net. After that Diego Alves had to make important saves from Willian José and Araujo to prevent the result from getting any worse, but it was a fifth defeat in six matches for the visitors, and with only six points between them and the bottom three, and a difficult fixture list from now to the end of the season, there is now a serious possibility that Valencia could actually go down.