David Villa’s hot streak in front of goal continued with two goals as Valencia returned to the top of the Spanish first division after a 4-2 home win over Deportivo La Coruna on Sunday. Valencia, league champions in 2002 and 2004, knocked Villarreal off the summit on goal difference as they continued their unbeaten start to the season under new coach Unai Emery.
“We are getting over the problems of last season [when they finished 10th] and today we showed what we are capable of,” Emery said. “It is nice to be top but what we are concerned with is consistency and growing as a team. We don’t know our limits because it is early on in the season.”
Sevilla moved up to fourth, two points behind Valencia, with a 1-0 win at Atletico Madrid late on Sunday. A 21st minute free-kick from Brazilian attacker Luis Fabiano, who scored 24 league goals last season, clinched the match for the visitors.
PHOTO: EPA
“Atletico are a magnificent team that clearly like to go forward but the difficulties they had today are due to the qualities of Sevilla,” said Sevilla coach Manolo Jimenez. “They had problems because of the pressure we exerted, we didn’t let them move the ball about like they can and our defence was solid too.”
Atletico defeated Sevilla home and away last season before stealing fourth spot and a Champions League berth from them so this was pay back for Sevilla. Javier Aguirre’s Atletico drop to seventh and need to clear their heads for tomorrow’s Champions League home match against Marseille.
“We tried and tried from every way we could,” Aguirre said. “It was difficult after they scored because they could sit and play on the counter attack.”
While Atletico failed to come from a goal down, Valencia showed great resilience to overcome Depor after an own goal from Italian defender Emiliano Moretti just 11 minutes in saw them fall behind.
The home side responded with Juan Mata leveling and Spanish star Villa put them ahead four minutes into the second half. Winger Joaquin made it 3-1 before Villa got a tap-in and he now sits top of the goalscoring charts with six goals from just five games showing why Real Madrid tried so hard to sign him this summer.
Portuguese side CS Maritimo are Valencia’s next opponents on Thursday in the UEFA Cup with the Spaniards holding a 1-0 advantage from the first leg.
While Emery has had a great start to life with Valencia — four wins and a draw in his first five matches — Racing Santander’s new manager Juan Ramon Muniz is finding it tough going.
Muniz watched his side lose 2-1 at home to Real Mallorca on Sunday, plunging the club into the bottom three without a win to their name.
“We lost because of the mistakes we made not because of one by the referee,” Muniz raged.
Cameroon striker Pierre Webo struck four minutes from time to sink Racing who had taken the lead through Ivan Marcano before Fernando Varela equalized for the visitors. It was a sweet win for Mallorca who lost out on the final UEFA Cup spot to Racing on the final day of last season and they go ninth while Racing lie second from bottom with two points from a possible 15.
Last season under Marcelino Garcia Racing were vying for a Champions League spot before finishing sixth to qualify for the UEFA Cup for the first time in their history. But Marcelino walked out on the club and Muniz is struggling to fill his shoes still waiting for his first league win in charge.
Newcomers Malaga, who Muniz led to promotion last season, recorded their first win of the campaign with a 2-1 over Valladolid on Sunday. After four games without finding the net Manuel Lolo scored Malaga’s first goal of the season on 33 minutes and the decisive second came on 54 minutes through Adrian Lopez. Elsewhere Almeria sit sixth in the standings with Argentine Alvaro Negredo scoring the winning goal five minutes into stoppage time to down nine-men Recreativo Huelva.
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