La Liga Round-Up: Las Palmas score huge win, Rayo send Alaves packing and Villarreal go above Atletico | OneFootball

Here’s what happened on Saturday in Matchday 11 in La Liga, ahead of El Clasico, with some big results.

Real Valladolid 1-2 Villarreal

Villarreal were back to winning ways after a disappointing draw with Getafe last week, and were ahead inside half an hour through Thierry Barry. The Yellow Submarine were in control for most of the match, but a Moussa Sylla penalty on the hour-mark levelled matters.

However Villarreal huffed, puffed, and eventually broke down the resistance at the Jose Zorrilla. Ayoze Perez nabbed his seventh goal off the bench with just six minutes to go, earning a deserved three points for Marcelino Garcia Toral’s side. The fact Valladolid goalkeeper Karl Hein earned the man of the match award was symbolic of La Pucela’s struggles too.

Valladolid remain in the drop zone, and make it three defeats in their last four at home. Villarreal are up to third ahead of Atletico Madrid’s game, and at this point, they look fairly good to challenge Diego Simeone’s side for that spot.

Rayo Vallecano 1-0 Alaves

Inigo Perez’s side started in fine fashion, forcing good saves from Antonio Sivera in the Alaves goal, but their plan was torn to pieces after 20 minutes when Abdul Mumin was sent off for a last-man challenge on Toni Martinez.

Alaves took off a defender and went more attacking, but were not entirely convincing going forward all the same. Agustin Batalla was forced into action in three instances, coming up big for Rayo, but neither were the home side out of the game. With just 10 minutes to go, brilliant work from Alvaro Garcia allowed him to lay the ball off to Gerard Gumbau. He shaped a lovely strike towards the top corner, which Sivera tipped onto the bar, and unfortunately for him, deflected in for an own goal when he landed.

Even a goal down, the Basque side struggled to throw much at Batalla, and Rayo looked more likely in the closing stages, drawing another couple of saves from Sivera. El Glorioso are in 14th, just two points above the drop now, while Rayo shoot up to seventh, just a point removed from European football.

Las Palmas 1-0 Girona

Las Palmas had gone 23 games and eight months without a win when Diego Martinez arrived, locked to the bottom of the table. His side made it two wins out of two under him, and shot out of the drop zone in the process, in a frustrating defeat for Girona.

The Catalan side took the lead through a brilliant outside of the boot strike from Donny van de Beek, but the referee disallowed it for a soft foul on Alex Suarez, who ran into the back of Bojan Miovski arm as he laid it off. A hugely frustrated Michel Sanchez had little reason to relax more thereafter.

As Las Palmas got back into the game, Girona suffered another injury, with right-back Alejandro Frances limping off just before half-time. While they were replacing him, a Viti cross was allowed to bounce in the box, and left-back Alex Munoz fired into the corner for his third of the season – from the same side Frances would have been on.

Las Palmas captain Kirian Rodriguez could have made things more comfortable, failing to convert an open goal, but it was a second half of attrition for the islanders. They defended with all they had, in front of the excellent Jasper Cillessen, who made several good saves to preserve his clean sheet.

Evidence of Girona’s frustration was in a red card for reserve goalkeeper Juan Carlos, who was dismissed for dissent. They lie 13th, with just three points separating them from Las Palmas. They are fresh out of the relegation zone after starting the week locked to the bottom, sitting 17th.