Villarreal, who took the lead on the scoreboard through the Norwegian Alexander Sorlothadded a valuable point in Vallecas against the Raywho equalized the contest in the first half with a bit of Kike Pérez but he did not know how to take advantage of the eighteen minutes he played with one more after the expulsion of Alberto Moreno.
The Castellón team, after its trip to Athens, where it lost to Panathinaikos less than 72 hours ago, appeared in Vallecas ready to dispel the doubts shown at the beginning of the season and that led to the dismissal of Quique Setién two and a half weeks ago.
for this match José Rojo ‘Pacheta’ introduced three changes in Villarreal compared to the last league game, two of them in defense. Alberto Moreno entered on the left side and Mandi in the center of the defense and in the middle of the field the novelty was Santi Comesaña, who returned for the first time to Vallecas, his home between 2016 and 2023.
One of those players, Alberto Moreno, was precisely the one who started the play for Villarreal’s first goal. He received a ball on the left side, got away from Iván Balliu with a pipe and put a cross behind Aridane who collected Alex Baena, who started the race to the baseline before giving the ball to the heart of the area for Sorloth to finish on goal.
Four goals in the last four days ????
Alexander Sørloth, the Viking goal king @VillarrealCF ????#LALIGAenDAZN ⚽ pic.twitter.com/0Xta04JU3F
— DAZN Spain (@DAZN_ES) September 24, 2023
That joy barely lasted a minute for Villarreal because after the center kick Unai López received the ball in the midfield, looked up, looked for Raúl de Tomás with a long pass that he did not control but that he did collect faster than the defenders Kike Pérez, who raised his shot over the top with a Vaseline against Filip Jorgensen.
BOOM! ???? When Villarreal was still celebrating the goal in Vallecas…
… Kike Pérez took a magical touch for the tie @RayoVallecano #LALIGAenDAZN ⚽ pic.twitter.com/x0bbVmAuwo
— DAZN Spain (@DAZN_ES) September 24, 2023
That Rayo goal gave wings to the Madrid team, who took control of the ball for much of the first half, causing damage to the left wing led by Álvaro García, although once again Villarreal, in an arrival, was able to go ahead again. He did it in the 40th minute with a cross shot by Gerard Moreno inside the area that crashed into the right post of Dimitrievski’s goal.
In the second half the game became more even, without a clear dominatorand the first to move was Pacheta bringing on Manu Trigueros for Gerard Moreno, with whom Villarreal gained consistency.
Francisco Rodríguez also wanted to look for variants and withdrew Raúl de Tomás and Isi Palazón, who were quite blurred, and put Jorge de Frutos and Sergio Camello in the fray, who gave greater mobility to the Rayo attack, which began to multiply its approaches on Jorgensen’s goal, who saw his rival’s second goal up close with a cross shot by Oscar Trejo that brushed against a post in the 73rd minute.
Shortly after, in ’77, Alberto Moreno saw the second yellow card and was sent offleaving Villarreal with ten, forcing Pacheta to reconvert José Luis Morales as a full-back.
Despite the numerical inferiority, the yellow team did not collapse and was able to score the second goal in a one-on-one with Yeremy Pino that Dimitrievski saved.
The final minutes were clearly dominated by Rayo, who besieged Villarreal with continuous attacksespecially by Cape Verdean Babe’s band, which made Villarreal’s defense desperate, who knew how to suffer to stop the attacks of the locals.
Datasheet:
1 – Rayo Vallecano: Dimitrievsky; Balliu, Aridane, Lejeune, Hawthorne; Isi (De Frutos, m.60), Unai Lopez (Pathé Ciss, m.70), Oscar Valentin, Alvaro Garcia (Baby, m.88), Kike Perez (Trejo, m.69); and Raul de Thomas (Camel, m.60).
1 – Villarreal: Jorgensen; Foyth, Albiol, Mandi; Comesaña (Capoue, m.76), Couple, Yeremy Pino (Rosemary, m.89), Alex Baena (Morales, m.76); Gerard Moreno (Manu Triggers, m.56) and Sorloth.
Goals: 0-1: M.15 Sorloth; 1-1: M.16 Kike Pérez.
Referee: Jorge Figueroa Vázquez (Andalusian Committee). He admonished Álvaro (m.18), Camello (63), from Rayo; and Alberto Moreno (62), Comesaña (73), from Villarreal. He sent off Alberto Moreno for a double yellow (m.77), from Villarreal.
Incidences: Match corresponding to the sixth day of the EA Sports League, played at the Vallecas Stadium in front of around 14,000 spectators.
2023-09-24 17:07:10
#Villarreal #resists #Vallecas
