La Liga 2016-'17 week 4 round-up: Real Madrid equal record, Bilbao stage a great comeback
Real Madrid win record equalling 16th consecutive La Liga game
Real had to do without Gareth Bale (hip problem) and Cristiano Ronaldo (flu) but still won 2-0 at Espanyol.
The European champions went 1-0 up on the stroke of half-time. Rodriguez got the ball from Toni Kroos some 30 yards plus out from goal. He then evaded two tackles before smashing a low shot beyond Diego Lopez and into the bottom corner of the net.
Karim Benzema scored the second 20 minutes from time when he finished an easy tap-in from Lucas Vazquez’ s low cross.
Los Blancos move on to 12 points from four games this season and are three points clear of Barcelona at the top of the table. Quique Sanchez Flores’ side meanwhile have just two points and are above the La Liga relegation zone only on goal difference.
Stalemate at El Sadar
Celta Vigo earned their first point of the season but were very unlucky not to collect the maximum as they dominated a game which somehow finished 0-0. Osasuna goalkeeper Mario Rodriguez played brilliantly, however, and when the ‘keeper was beaten bad luck for the visitors meant the ball didn’t go into the net.
The Galicians almost scored in the first half when Daniel Wass’ free-kick from more than 25 yards out hit the crossbar and then Rodriguez made a good save from an Iago Aspas effort.
John Guidetti then netted for Celta just before half-time but his effort was disallowed as the linesman flagged for offside. Josep Sene and Wass couldn’t score from excellent chances in the second half before Rodriguez made another great save from a Pablo Hernandez header.
The hosts didn’t muster an effort on target until Sergio Alvarez saved Jaime Romero’s effort in the 85th minute. Celta once again took the initiative from there and nearly won it in injury-time as Aspas’ free-kick saw the home side’s crossbar struck for the second time.
Bilbao come back from behind to vanquish Valencia
Valencia took the lead inside the opening two minutes when Alvaro Medran smashed the ball home from inside the six-yard box after Nani had played a nice pass to feed him though the home side’s defending was very poor.
Diego Alves made an excellent save inside 20 minutes to keep his team ahead; leaping across well to get to Inaki Williams effort from a tight angle. The home side were dominating though and equalised midway through the first half when Aritz Aduriz beat Alves to the ball, heading home a Beñat cross.
On 41 minutes Bilbao completed their comeback when Beñat set up Aduriz again and he clipped the ball over the advancing Alves.
The ever dangerous Garcia set up Aduriz who was looking for his third midway through the second half but the prolific striker sliced just wide, shortly before Garcia himself came a whisker from scoring with two attempts as the home side looked to wrap up the win.
In the end, Bilbao saw out the win comfortably but serious questions are now surely to be asked of Valencia manager Pako Ayesteran as they remain pointless after four games.
Sensational Sansone strike sees Villarreal beat Real Sociedad
The home side had the chance to take the lead after 15 minutes when Nicola Sansone was felled by visiting goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli’s trailing leg. The home fans weren’t happy though when the Argentinian was shown a yellow card instead of a red. Alexandre Pato stepped up to take the resulting penalty but he dragged his effort wide.
The opening goal came for the Yellow Submarine midway through the first half when a fine ball from Roberto Soriano released Sansone into space and he assuredly placed the ball past the advancing Ruli and into the net.
There was much better in store though a few minutes later when Sansone got the ball inside his half from Samu Castillejo, before moving past the halfway line and smashing a fantastic effort past the helpless Rulli.
La Real got back into the game on 35 minutes following some good work by Carlos Vela and Willian Jose which was finished off with a smart strike from a tight angle by the onrushing Yuri.
Villarreal ‘keeper Sergio Asenjo made a fantastic save in the 50th minute, doing very well to block Juanmi’s effort when he had just the keeper to beat.
From there on the visitors had a lot of the ball but couldn’t create very much and Villarreal held on for the three points quite comfortably. To compound their misery the visitors had Joseba Zaldua sent off in injury time at the end of the game for a second bookable offence but Sociedad had tired by then and the game was realistically over.