Segunda Round 5 review

Rayo Vallecano got Week 5 up and running with a 2-0 win over Racing Santander at Vallecas. Esteban Saveljich opened the scoring when he headed in Adrián Embarba’s cross. They were reduced to ten men when Martin Pascual was shown a second yellow card for a bad tackle after half an hour. Racing then found themselves a man light just four minutes later when Aristote Nkaka was booked for the second time after a silly trip. The visitors spurned the opportunity to draw level when Abdul Karim Yoda missed a penalty, hitting the bar from 12 yards. In the 95th minute, Racing sent goalkeeper Luca Zidane forward in an attempt to make an extra man count but were caught upfield as Rayo broke forward. Bebé ran the length of the pitch, finally stroking the ball home uncontested to put the match out of the visitors’ reach.

In the first of the Saturday matches, Málaga continued to struggle as they drew at Mirandes. Martin Merquelanz scored his second goal in two matches when his 76th minute striker cancelled out Armando Sadiku’s second-half opener for the Andalusians.

Numancia sprang one of the biggest surprises of the week when they topped Huesca at Los Pajaritos. The visitors had won three out of their opening four coming into this match, but Alberto Escasi’s goal ten minutes from time was enough to give Numancia victory.

Third-placed Almería won comfortably on the road at Las Palmas who have yet to record a win this campaign. Romera’s first half goal was added to by José Corpas and Valentin Valda in the second period to add a further three points to Almería’s haul, who have only dropped points once this season.

Cádiz further extended their lead at the top of the Segunda División, notching up their fifth consecutive win to start the season as they beat Girona 2-0 at the Ramón de Carranza. An own goal by Pedro Alcalá shortly after the half hour mark put the home side ahead. The Catalan side were dealt a further blow in the 90th minute when forward Cristhian Stuani was red carded for an arm across the face of Cádiz defender Isaac Carcelen. Álex Fernández further compounded their misery five minutes later when he added a second goal by taking advantage of a defensive error to tap in from close range. Fernández has now scored in Cádiz’s last four consecutive matches, the longest scoring streak of any player in La Liga Smartbank this season so far.

Alcorcón travelled to Ponferrada and somehow came away from El Toralín with a point despite being reduced to nine men in the second half. Álex Aizpuru had given Ponferradina the lead four minutes before half time and they looked to be comfortably easing to victory when Richard Boateng and Samuel Sosa were expelled seven minutes apart. However, the sting in the tail came from Daniel Romera who netted on 72 minutes to grab an unlikely draw.

Sunday got off to a bang as Tenerife dispatched Albacete with ease by a score of 4-0. The islanders, who had not scored in their previous two matches including a 4-0 crushing by Ponferradina a fortnight ago, got the best possible start when Álex Bermejo scored in the first minute. Robert Mazau added a second on 13 minutes to put the blanquiazules firmly in command. Albacete weathered the storm somewhat in the early stages of second period but were eventually undone by further goals from Ramón Miérez and Dani Gómez.

Real Oviedo are surprisingly still searching for their first win of the season and will have to wait until their next match to try again. They were beaten 2-0 by Elche at the Carlos Tartiere, who had a double from Yacine Qasmi either side of the break to thank. The Moroccan forward blasted his side ahead with a great finish from an extremely tight angle after muscling his way through a challenge in the box. His second goal was one of finesse; a sumptuous through-ball by Nino found the tow of Qasmi, who controlled first time and guided the ball past Nereo Champagne in the home goal. The Carbayones task was made all the more difficult due to the expulsions of Samuel Obeng and Sergio Tejera five minutes apart and they remain firmly rooted to the bottom of the table. This predicament saw Real Oviedo part ways with Argentinian coach Sergio Egea after the match and he will be replaced by Javi Rozada.

In contrast, Real Zaragoza can do little wrong and are among the favourites to challenge for the title. Their latest outing at a packed La Romareda saw them defeat Extremadura 3-1 and they look every inch a Primera calibre team, having dropped points only once this term courtesy of a late Ponferradina equaliser in Week 2. They were perhaps more dominant than the score line might suggest, having gone ahead inside quarter of an hour through Raphael Dwamena but being pegged back ten minutes into the second half by Diego Caballo. However, their persistence paid off and they added two goal in the final ten minutes; firstly, from Shinji Kagawa and then Luis Suárez.

Lugo collected their first three points of the season in an impressive display where they handed Fuenlabrada their first loss. Gerard Valentin put the hosts in front inside ten minutes and Cristian Herrera added the second shortly after the half hour mark.

The final match of the week pitted two traditionally strong teams to have fallen on harder times of late. Sporting Gijón took on Deportivo La Coruña at El Molinón and the match finished with honours even by a score of 1-1. The home side took an early lead through Uros Djurdevic’s fine finish after five minutes when the Serbian striker gathered a pass on the edge of the box and stroked his foot round the ball to send a looping effort into the top corner of Dani Giménez’s goal. Both sides had chances to score peppered throughout the match and each goalkeeper was kept busy. Possibly the best of the chances fell to Dépor’s Colombian forward Christian Santos who stopped low to connect a header which bounced high and hit the bar. However, the Branquiazuis were awarded a very late penalty, 95 minutes into the match to be exact, after Sporting defender Borja López was adjudged to have used his hand while attempting to clear a cross. Ager Aketxe stepped up and coolly slotted home the resulting spot kick to give his side a share of the spoils and snap a three-match losing streak.