Villarreal beat Malaga 3-2
Villarreal beat Malaga by 3-2 in their Spanish La Liga tie to move up to the 2nd spot in the table. The yellow submarine in the end beat a 10 men Malaga team in game that produced 5 goals in total.
It was the first half that produced most of the action; it was the home side who went ahead first through Eliseu Pereira’s brilliant shot from edge of the box. The visitors hit back hard with 2 goals from Cazorla and Giuseppe Rossi.
Malaga who have not won a match at home since beating Villarreal back in March by 2-0 got on level terms when Jose Salomon Rondon used his head to good effect in the 33rd minute. The Yellow submarine did not take long to restore the lead as Cazorla scored his second and made it 3-2 before half time.
The 3rd goal proved to be worth 3 points for Villarreal as Malaga could not find way a back in the match, and the red card to Eliseu 4 minutes from the break did not help their cause either.
Villarreal were in pretty good form going into the game. They had won their last 3 games on the trot after suffering a defeat at the hands of Espanyol in their first match of the season. The away side though did not have the best start to the match as they conceded just four minutes into the first half.
A short free kick was cleverly played to the edge of 6 yard box; Eliseu acted quickly and used his left foot to smash in a thunderbolt that creped in the underside of the bar. Villarreal goalkeeper Diego Lopez could barely move and was left with his feet stuck to the ground.
The visitors knew that an early goal meant they had enough time to fight back and did get back on level terms 16 minutes later. Cazorla, took a look range shot which was deflected by the Malaga midfielder Antonio Apono and ended up in back of the net beating goalkeeper Ruben Martinez at his near post.
It did not take long for Villarreal to take the lead, just 3 minutes later it was the former Manchester United striker Guiseppi Rossi who got his name on the score sheet. Nilmar played an inch perfect through ball from the centre of midfield and Rossi did well to control it on the run before calmly slotting it in at the far post.
The match was pretty open from the start and there was no question that more goals were bound to come. It was only at the 29th minute mark when the 4th goal of the game came, this time it was the home side that drew level. Quincy Owusu-Abeyie was the man who did all the hard work on the left wing after taking the ball near the centre line; the winger darted his way towards the bye line and scooped the ball up for an easy header from 6 yards for Rondon who made no mistake.
The action did not stop just there, Villarreal looked determined to be on top and were not satisfied to go into the locker rooms on level terms. Marcos Senna went close with a long distance shot and flashed a 30-yard drive just over the bar. Cazorla though got the eventual match winner and made it 3-2.
The Spanish international played a delightful one two with Nilmar on the edge of Malaga’s 6 yard box, and as soon as he found some space inside the box he let fly a low drive into the corner of the net.
Valencia is on top of the Spanish league table, with Villarreal in 2nd place while Barcelona are in 3rd and Real Madrid in 4th.
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