Friday, May 18th, 2012
Real Betis 2 Real Sociedad 3
Another stunning goal by Iñigo Martinez to add to his collection earned Real Sociedad a vital three points, and probably saved his manager from the sack. Real Betis meanwhile, are slipping further and further into trouble with the loss.
The game started brightly with both sides exchanging numerous blows, and causing scares for each other. Imanol Agirretxe has the first decent effort with Casto dealt with, before Claudio Bravo had to be alert in denying Beñat’s header form sneaking in.
With 15 minutes to go before the break, Sociedad were handed a huge chance when Cato brought down Antoine Griezmann, and the Frenchman who has failed to spark this season took the penalty himself – and send it wide.
Both sides were anxious in the opening stages of the 2nd half as if they were feeling out the opposition, seeing how they were set to operate. Several pieces of untidy play in midfield started to get the game bogged down in the middle, before the deadlock was broken.
Carlos Vela’s corner found the head of Agirretxe who made no mistake. Moments the later the exact same nearly resulted in another goal for Sociedad, only this time Agirretxe took Vela’s delivery in his stride and smashed his strike off the bar.
Sociedad remained positive though, and the front two who had linked up well all afternoon did so again only this time in a reverse manner. Agirretxe was provider, as he slipped in the Mexican Vela, who drilled his shot into the bottom corner.
Betis’ fans sounded their disapproval and made their feeling known, before the team sprung into life as Sociedad sat too deep and looked to hold the lead. Jonathan Pereira stepped up, and bagged two goals. The first he smashed a left footed strike into the net, before tapping in from close range.
With the home fans in delight, it soon turned to despair…and amazement as Martínez scored his 2nd stunning goal of the season. Finding himself on the left, the young centre back fired in a shot from 35 yards out which swung into the centre of the goal, giving La Real a much needed victory.
FT: Real Betis 2 (Jonathan Pereira 76′, 81′) – Real Sociedad 3 (Agirretxe 56′, Vela 76′, Martinez 90′)
Levante 4 Sporting Gijón 0
by Des Norris
Levante’s proverbial gingerbread house was blown down weeks ago (or however that story’s supposed to go), but today at least the Valencian outfit was able to restore moral and keep its floundering fairly tale campaign alive, for now at least.
After three defeats on the trot, today Juan Ignacio Martínez’s side recorded its biggest victory of the season so far, by spanking Sporting Gijon 4-0 at home.
Manuel Preciado, who is fondly remembered in the Ciutat de Valencia stadium for securing promotion back to la Primera for Levante in 2004, was given no favourable treatment by his old club today, as his Sporting’s recent impressive run of form came crashing to an end after an uninspired performance.
Levante started the brighter of the two but some wasteful play early on by Javi Barkero gave the impression that it was going to be one of those days for the home side: first in the 10th minute when his touch let him down after a well placed Javi Venta pass picked him out running in behind the Sporting back line, and again, in the 16th, after a deftly cushioned pass from Juanlu left the former Real Sociedad man to wriggle past Botía only to sky his shot well over the bar.
The Basque redeemed himself on 20 minutes when Koné, after bearing down on the right, intercepted the left-full and bee lined towards the Sporting goal only to unselfishly square it across to Barkero, who side footed it home.
The first half played out with Levante the stronger side, but that’s not to say Sporting didn’t have their chances. A David Barral header which, luckily for Ballesteros went wide of the mark, should have seen the visitors level the score in the 34th minute. Miguel Ángel de las Cuevas was also culpable of some poor finishing soon after when a corner from the right fell to him on the back post, but instead of finding the net he blasted the ball into the ground for Munúa to easily gather it up.
The second half had barely started when Levante extended their lead. This time Juanlu, who was a thorn in the visitors’ right side all afternoon, dangerously fired the ball towards goal which Alberto Lora blocked only for the equally dangerous Valdo to slot it in from the back stick.
Munúa made a vital reflex save moments later from a close range Barral header to prevent a fight back from the come-from-behind specialists (Sporting having already come back to win against Mallorca and Getafe this season). The move culminated in Koné steaming through the middle, with Ivan Hernandez only able to chase the Ivorian’s shadow, before the Levante striker rounded Juan Pablo and put his own name on the score sheet.
The game was over very early into the restart but Levante made absolutely sure of it with half an hour to go. This time a beautifully taken Asier Del Horno free kick, which Juan Pablo got his finger tips to, bounced off the woodwork only to be met by the insatiable Koné who notched his second of the afternoon with a simple tap in.
The comprehensive opening 15 minutes of the second half sunk Sporting and with a four goal cushion Levante’s veterans were able to take their foot off the gas for the last third of the game and see out the tie with a clean sheet, having never really being troubled.
Levante’s real acid test comes next week when they face Barcelona in the Camp Nou. Whether they can get their impossible dream season back on track or get punished by the recently wounded European Champions remains to be seen but today’s result will keep everyone’s favourite underdogs in fighting mood. Meanwhile, Preciado’s men will have to dust themselves off quickly for the impending visit of league leaders, Real Madrid next week.
FT: Levante 4 Sporting Gijon 0 (Barkero 20, Valdo 46, Koné 51, 61)
Des Norris can be followed via Twitter here, and his own personal blog can be found here
Espanyol 1 Osasuna 2
Osasuna leapfrogged Espanyol thanks to their first away win of the season at Cornellà-El Prat.
Espanyol have struggled for goals all season with Alvaro Vasquez’s profligacy being one of the main problems, and the Spanish U-21 international was again off target with the best chance of the opening quarter as Joan Verdu’s perfectly directed cross found him completely unmarked inside the area, but his flicked header floated just wide.
Roland Lamah then gave the visitors the lead towards the end of an otherwise unremarkable first period as he raced onto an excellent through ball from Raul Garcia. Cristian Alvarez could have done more to narrow the angle but opted to stay on his line and Lamah easily stroked the ball into the corner.
Osasuna’s second just after the break was more spectacular as Javad Nekounam rifled in a trademark long-range effort high into the top corner from Lamah’s cut-back.
Within five minutes though the deficit had been halved as Andres Fernandez came to punch away Verdu’s cross but was beaten to the ball by Alvaro and his header dropped into the empty net.
An injury to Sergio Garcia had allowed Vladimir Weiss a rare start and the on-loan Manchester City winger came to life as the game progressed. Fernandez redeemed himself slightly as he tipped over a rising drive from the Slovakian before Eneko Satrustegui was sent-off for the second time in only his second game for Osasuna when he was shown a second yellow-card for impeding another Weiss run.
With the man advantage Espanyol pressed hard for an equaliser, but the lack of craft that has characterised the season was in evidence as they failed to break the visitors down.
Espanyol 1 (Alvaro 56) Osasuna 2 (Lamah 44, Nekounam 50)
Mallorca 2 Racing Santander 1
Mallorca celebrated their first win under the tutelage of Joaquin Caparros with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Racing Santander.
The Islanders had gone five games without a win since Caparros replaced Michael Laudrup in early October and with Racing having won only once in their first 12 league games, the lack of confidence on show from both sides was apparent in a first-half devoid of any flow or quality.
Emilio Nsue was though the one player who looked capable of creating and so it proved with the opener as the Spanish U-21 internationalist burst down the left and fired a low cross in towards Tomer Hemed. Marc Torrejon managed to get in front of the Israeli but in doing so could only deflect the cross into his own net.
Mallorca came out with more purpose and energy at the start of the second period and Hemed was denied his first goal for the club from open play as Tono pushed away his fierce effort on 54 minutes.
The hosts didn’t have to wait long for the crucial second goal though as Pereira’s excellent cross found the late arriving Victor and his finish this time gave Tono no chance.
Hector Cuper introduced Ariel Nahuelpan on the hour mark and the Argentine had almost an immediate impact as shocking marking by Mallorca allowed him to head home Pape Diop’s free-kick with 15 minutes remaining.
Pedro Bigas then showed his inexperience with a wild and unnecessary challenge on Manuel Arana just inside the Racing half and was rightly dismissed by referee Fernández Borbalán.
With the man advantage Racing started to dominate for the first time in the match and Torrejon had a great chance to atone for his previous error but saw his shot well-stopped by Dudu Aouate deep into added time.
Victory moves Mallorca up to 13th, four points clear of Racing who remain rooted to the foot of the table.
Mallorca 2 (Torrejon (og) 45+1, Victor 58) Racing Santander 1 (Nahuelpan 75)
Tags: Espanyol, La Liga, Levante, Mallorca, Osasuna, Racing Santander, Real Betis, Real Sociedad, Sportign Gijon
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