Athletic Club and Getafe maintain 100% records as Sevilla sink towards bottom | OneFootball

Monday night saw the final two games of Jornada 2 in La Liga, with Athletic Club hosting Rayo Vallecano at San Mames, and Sevilla in their first home game at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan against Getafe.

Athletic Club 1-0 Rayo Vallecano: Sancet has no replacement

Image via Athletic Club

Athletic Club opened their clash with Rayo dominating the ball and playing in the opposition half, but without doing too much damage to their visitors. It was Alvaro Garcia who came closest with his ball across from the left rolling along the six-yard box without a taker, and Isi Palazon and Jorge de Frutos causing issues for the Athletic backline. Only an electric Nico Williams run, and a short from distance shortly after, increased the volume at San Mames.

The game changed in the second half though with the introduction of Oihan Sancet back from injury. The younger Williams supplied Inaki Williams with a perfect outside of the boot assist early on, but Augusto Batalla was out swiftly to tame his effort, and he could not corrale a deflected ball through on goal quickly after either. The decisive movement came in the 66th minute though, after Sancet beat Gerard Gumbau in the box, and converted the resulting penalty, rolling the ball into the net.

The final minutes of the match saw Rayo struggle to create issues for Athletic, and Los Leones were composed, securing a second straight home win. Rayo return home to prepare for their second leg in the Conference League play-off against Neman Grodno on Thursday in Vallecas (1-0 on agg.).

Sevilla 1-2 Getafe: Adrian Liso joins Pichichi race

Image via Getafe CF

Sevilla hosted Getafe for Matias Almeyda’s home debut, and could scarcely have wished for a worse opponent. Los Azulones turned up to spoil Sevilla’s evening, and found plenty of space on the break, with the trident of Davinchi, Christantus Uche and Adrian Liso causing no end of problems. Luis Milla was generally their supplier, as he, Mauro Arambarri and Mario Martin snapping into challenges.

Liso, 20 and a new signing, grabbed his second goal in his second game after his deflected effort from a short corner found a way in. It looked as if Sevilla would end the half in trouble, but a delicious ball in from Juanlu Sanchez found Jose Angel Carmona at the back post, and his pressure forced Juan Iglesias to put the ball in his own net.

Just before the break, Uche, Liso and Milla could not convert a triple chance, but that set the tone for the early going in the second period. As Sevilla tried to make progress towards the Getafe goal, Jose Bordalas’ side robbed the ball, and broke, with the decisive counter-attack coming in the 51st minute. Milla nipped in to gain possession in midfield, skipped past a Sevilla defender, and then slipped in Liso, who finished with ease from the left side of the box. His third in two, he joins Tajon Buchanan and Kylian Mbappe atop the Pichichi leaderboard.

As Los Nervionenses looked for the equaliser, Isaac Romero struck the post with 10 minutes remaining, and Akor Adams had scored, but from an offside position. Those efforts belied an increasingly sloppy performance though, as they struggled to cope with Getafe’s defensive intensity. Bordalas’ side are one of five with maximum points so far. Sevilla were met with loud chants of ‘Board, resign’ at the final whistle. They sit joint-bottom next to Levante, Real Oviedo and Girona.