Friday, May 18th, 2012
It may be one week later than scheduled but yesterday the 2011/2012 La Liga season finally kicked off with victories for Valencia, Real Sociedad and Real Betis
Valencia 4 Racing Santander 3
Valencia turned on the style as they came from two goals behind to win 4-3 against Racing Santander in a thrilling climax at Mestalla on Saturday. Roberto Soldado was the hero, claiming a hat-trick with a late double salvo in what had hitherto been an extremely frustrating night for the hosts, up against former boss Hector Cuper. Soldado had given his team the lead inside 60 seconds, pouncing on a Pablo Hernandez shot that Antonio Toño fumbled. But the Valencia number nine levelled things up moments later, heading a Kennedy corner into his own net. Lautaro Acosta then put the visitors ahead on 14 minutes, slipping the ball underneath Vicente Guaita at the end of a two-on-one breakaway, and the points appeared to be heading north to Cantabria when Adrian made it 3-1 shortly before the hour mark.
The game had been an error-strewn affair up to that point, with Los Che woefully short of their usual standards, but new signing Adil Rami headed them back into contention almost immediately. And it seemed to have a galvanising effect as the hosts upped the tempo to put Racing under the cosh in the final quarter. Toño was called into action three times in quick succession, thwarting headers from Soldado and Rami before parrying a Soldado shot, and it looked as though it wasn’t to be Valencia’s night when Jonas struck the base of a post after bringing the ball down from a corner. However, their persistence paid off with an equaliser on 88 minutes when Soldado fired home on the turn following a cute reverse pass from lively substitute Jonas, and the local-born striker lightened the mood of the tetchy Mestalla faithful with a dramatic winner on the stroke of 90 minutes, tapping home a Jordi Alba cross from close range. It was, for the most part, a poor start to the campaign from Unai Emery’s men but the manner of their late recovery should serve as stark warning to their Champions League rivals that they will once again set the benchmark in the race for third place.
Goals:
Valencia: Soldado (1, 88, 90), Rami 58
Racing: Soldado o.g (7), Acosta (14), Adrian (56)
Valencia: Guaita; Bruno, Rami, Ricardo Costa (Tino Costa, min. 45), Jordi Alba; Topal Banega; Pablo Hernández, Piatti (Jonas, min.67), Bernat(Canales, min.45); Soldado.
Racing: Toño; Picón(Borja García, min. 68), Alvaro, Osmar, Cisma; Diop, Adrián; Kennedy, Munitis, Arana (Jairo, min. 78); Acosta (Edu Bedia, min. 64).
Sporting Gijón 1 Real Sociedad 2
Meanwhile, it was a winning start for Phillipe Montanier at Real Sociedad as he guided the San Sebastián outfit to a 2-1 success over Sporting Gijón in the earlier game. Two headers from Imanol Agirretxe either side of half-time put the visitors in control at El Molinón, although their ten men were forced to weather a storm in the final quarter after Miguel De Las Cuevas reduced the arrears from the penalty spot with defender Carlos Martinez dismissed for pulling down Alberto Botía inside the box on the end of a long free-kick into the box. The Asturians threw the kitchen sink at Montanier’s men in search of an equaliser late on but couldn’t make their dominance count as a familiar lack of cutting edge in the final third came back to haunt them. Sporting registered 17 shots on goal, but only four of them would test visiting keeper Claudio Bravo. La Real will feel as though the result goes some way towards justifying their surprise decision to part company with Martin Lasarte in the summer with his successor now expected to improve on a 15th-placed finish in their second season back at this level. Lasarte probably had just cause to believe he had done enough to stay in the role but Montanier comes with a reputation for creating a whole greater than the sum of its parts on the back of some sterling work at Valenciennes in his native France. The Basque club had the second-worst record on the road in La Liga last season, losing 15 of their away 19 games, although the impression of progress is kept in check by the fact that, in the midst of that shocking statistic, they did also bag maximum points at this ground last November. That was one of many low points in an awful start to the last campaign for Sporting and their supporters will now be left hoping a repeat isn’t on the cards. The 2010/11 season was very much a tale of two halves for Manolo Preciado’s men. They won only two of their first 18 league matches last time around, picking up just 16 points from the first round of fixtures compared with 31 points when facing the same opposition second time around.
Goals:
Sporting Gijon: De las Cuevas (68)
Real Sociedad: Agirretxe (34, 65)
Sporting: Juan Pablo; Lora, Botía, Iván Hernández, Canella; Eguren (Trejo, min 58), Sergio Alvarez (Rivera, min. 58), André Castro; Nacho Novo (Sangoy, min. 68), De las Cuevas; Barral
Real Sociedad: Bravo: Martínez, Martínez, Demidov, De la Bella; Aranburu, Illarramendi; Xabi Prieto, Zurutuza (Estrada, min. 71), Carlos Vela (M. González, min. 89); Agirretxe( Ifrán, min. 81).
Granada 0 Real Betis 1
Finally, Real Betis made a winning return to the Primera with a late Ruben Castro goal against fellow newcomers Granada at Los Carménes. The fixture was a repeat of their opening day clash in the second tier 12 months ago, although the mood was presumably somewhat more enthusiastic and there was nothing too familiar about the Graná line-up with Fabriciano Gonzalez fielding a total of eight debutants. And it appeared as though the game was heading for a goalless draw until Castro popped up to head home a dinked cross from Jonathan Pereira – who had done brilliantly two minutes from time. It was no more than the visitors deserved as they enjoyed the lion’s share of possession and built up a head of steam towards the end, coming close on a couple of occasions before eventually forcing the breakthrough.
Goals:
Real Betis: Ruben Castro (88′)
Granada CF: Roberto, Nyom, Siqueira, Mainz, Pamarot (Yebda, m.46), Lucena, Mikel Rico, Abel Gómez (Martins, m.46), Dani Benítez, Jaime Romero (Mollo, m.66) and Ighalo.
Real Betis: Casto, Chica, Nacho, Dorado, Mario, Iriney, Beñat, Salva Sevilla (Pereira, m.86), Montero (Alex Martinez, m.91), Vadillo (Jorge Molina, m.51) and Rubén Castro.
Tags: Granada 0 Real Betis 1, La Liga week 1, Roberto Soldado, Sporting Gijon 1 Real Sociedad 2, Valencia 4 Racing 3
