Las Palmas left the red lantern at Mestalla, where they achieved their first victory in eight months, and put Valencia in trouble on the day they hoped to get out of the relegation spots. The team of Ruben Barajamore questioned every week, wasted his lead on the scoreboard (1-0) and ended up conceding three goals from an opponent who seemed doomed and who, under the guidance of his new coach, Diego Martínez, seemed different. Valencia, even in October, is already anxious about losing the category.
2
Giorgi Mamardashvili, César Tárrega, Cristhian Mosquera, Rodrigo Abajas (José Gayà, min. 65), Thierry Correia (Dimitri Foulquier, min. 74), Enzo Barrenechea (André Almeida, min. 54), Sergi Canós (Diego López, min. 54), Pepelu, Luis Rioja, Dani Gómez (Javi Guerra, min. 74) and Hugo Duro
3
Jasper Cillessen, Scott McKenna, Viti Rozada (Benito Ramírez, min. 73), Álex Muñoz (Juan Herzog, min. 73), Álex Suárez, Alberto Moleiro, Dário Essugo, Kirian Rodríguez, José Campaña (Javi Muñoz, min. 58) , Adnan Januzaj (Oliver McBurnie, min. 65) and Fábio Silva (Marc Cardona, min. 65)
Goals
1-0 min. 13: Pepelu. 1-1 min. 42: Alex Muñoz. 1-2 min. 52: Fabio Silva. 1-3 min. 83: Alberto Moleiro. 2-3 min. 93: César Tárrega
Referee Jesus Gil Manzano
yellow cards
Fabio Silva (min. 6), Luis Rioja (min. 7), Pepelu (min. 7), Campaña (min. 11), Dario Essugo (min. 22), Viti (min. 27), Rodrigo Abajas (min. 29), Enzo Barrenechea (min. 36), Marc Cardona (min. 68), Kirian Rodríguez (min. 68), Álex Suárez (min. 76), Javi Muñoz (min. 81), Alberto Moleiro (min. 97)
red cards
Pepelu (min. 68)
And I thought it was the most favorable day since this stormy League began. Rubén Baraja’s team received the bottom team in their fiefdom, in front of their infallible fans (more than 40,000 fans on a languid autumn Monday at nine at night). It was the day of takeoff. The black and white coach launched his players for Cillessen’s goal from the moment Gil Manzano blew the whistle. Mercilessly. It didn’t take 15 seconds to generate the first clear scoring chance. There was no doubt: it was the day. Valencia cornered Las Palmas, who were sweating to not only create danger, but simply get the ball out of their field. Valencia’s chances kept happening while Hugo Durowho returned to Pipo Baraja’s eleven, seemed to have fun between his rival’s defensive lines. The harassment led the trembling island defense to commit a clear penalty that Pepelu converted into relief for his team.
It was the day. Now all that was left was to take out the cape in the midfield and fight Las Palmas until finding the moment to go in to kill. But Diego Martínez’s team, the coach who was making his debut on the Las Palmas bench, needed to feel lost to get rid of their complexes and finally launch themselves into the attack. The 1-0 was like a bugle call. The island team stretched and as soon as they managed to connect with Fabio Silva, the very active Portuguese forward, he was capable of creating a sense of danger. Valencia began to doubt and the Las Palmas forwards put into the game Mamardashviliinactive until then. After the Georgian goalkeeper’s second rebound in the final minutes of the first half, Álex Muñoz hooked the ball to equalize the match and get the whistles out of a fed-up fan. Let’s see if it wasn’t the day…
Baraja, who had taken another youth player out of his sleeve to give Ro Abajas his debut, ordered Gayá to warm up as soon as the match resumed. Encouragement was needed for a disappointed crowd. Fabio Silva, stellar all night, did not waste a great assist from Campaña to round off Las Palmas’ comeback. It wasn’t the day.
Already against the ropes, Baraja recovered Gayá five months after the injury that left him without the Euro Cup. It didn’t matter. Las Palmas, all clever since 1-0, began to play on Valencia’s nerves with constant losses of time and dirtying the game. In one of those incidents, after an ugly tackle on Gayá, a fight broke out that ended with the expulsion of Pepelu, which left his team injured and one less.
The bottom team until last night took advantage of a counterattack to make it 1-3 and shut down Mestalla definitively. It was clear, it was the day, but the day in Las Palmas.
