Athletic dominate Getafe; Villareal cruise past Granada
Raul Garcia enjoyed a dream debut for Athletic Club by scoring in a convincing 3-1 win over Getafe.
The former Atletico Madrid and Osasuna forward headed in the Basque side's second goal midway through the second half after Athletic had taken the lead through Aritz Aduriz. Aduriz struck again in the 83rd minute to finish off Getafe, who were given brief hope of snatching a point thanks to Emiliano Velazquez's 70th minute goal.
This was a commanding and morale boosting win for Athletic, who had lost their first two games of the season to Barcelona and Eibar respectively, while Getafe remain the only team in the Primera Division still to pick up a point. Athletic could legitimately claim of suffering from tiredness in the month of August, having played a total of eight games, but they looked refreshed after the international break and got off to an ideal start as Aduriz headed home from a corner.
Athletic goalkeeper Gorka Iraizoz made an excellent save to prevent Velazquez from equalising with a header following a free-kick, and then minutes later Athletic attacked again down the other end and Garcia doubled their lead, heading in a cross from Markel Susaeta. Velazquez got the better of Iraizoz in the 69th minute, volleying past the goalkeeper, but Athletic never looked in danger of surrendering their lead and wrapped the game up when Aduriz slid home to turn in a cross from Javier Eraso.
Granada 1, Villareal 3
Two dreadful errors from Granada goalkeeper Andres Fernandez helped Villarreal to a 3-1 win in Sunday morning's game at the Nuevo Los Carmenes.
The custodian's misplaced pass allowed Manu Trigueros to break the deadlock four minutes into the second half, and just moments later Fernandez embarrassed himself further, again surrendering possession in his team's own half, and this time Cedric Bakambu made the most of the opportunity. Fran Rico pulled one back for Granada to make for an interesting final 15 minutes, but Marcelino's side survived the late onslaught and then wrapped the three points up thanks to an injury-time goal from Samuel Garcia.
The first half witnessed a dearth of chances due to smart defending from both sides, so it was inevitable that the first opening would come from an error. That came on 49 minutes when Fernandez passed straight to Samuel Castillejo, who teed up Trigueros to score.
The former Porto goalkeeper seemed rattled by his mistake and quickly made another error. Trigueros mopped up his weak kick out and arrowed the ball into the path of Bakambu, who scored with one touch to make it three goals in his three appearances for the club. Granada initially struggled to recover from the costly errors, but on 75 minutes Rico pounced on a loose ball in the box to drive into the bottom corner and give them hope.
They pressed their opponents for the remainder of the game in search of an equaliser, but were punished on the break, with substitute Garcia pouncing on the rebound after Denis Suarez's shot hit the far post.
Celta de Vigo 3, Las Palmas 3
Las Palmas produced an almighty second half display to come back from two goals down to draw 3-3 at Celta Vigo, despite playing the majority of the game with 10 men.
Goalkeeper Javi Varas was sent off for giving away a penalty on 10 minutes, which Fabian Orellana duly dispatched. Daniel Wass increased the Galician side's advantage but Sergio Araujo scored his first Primera Division goal to put the visitors back in contention.
Paco Herrera's side squandered a couple of chances to level before the break and Celta forward Nolito punished them for their profligacy by scoring a third after Orellana had intercepted a stray pass from Las Palmas defender Antolin Alcaraz. But Las Palmas found a way back into the game just after the hour mark when Celta midfielder Pablo Hernandez diverted the ball into his own net as he tried to block a shot from Araujo.
Centre-back David Simon then completed the comeback on 73 minutes by finishing off a lightning counter attack. Celta dominated the remaining minutes as they looked to recover the three points. Iago Aspas missed two good chances in quick succession, Nolito came close from a free-kick in stoppage time and substitute goalkeeper Raul Lizoain made three vital late saves, the best of which kept out a long range effort from Orellana.
Las Palmas could even had snatched an extraordinary winner, but substitute Wakaso Mubarak failed to make the most of a chance on the counter.
Malaga 0, Eibar 0
Malaga are still looking for their first goal and first win of the season after playing out a drab goalless draw with Eibar in La Liga.
The hosts had the better of the chances at La Rosaleda but were unable to find a way through Eibar, for whom the result maintained an unbeaten start. Eibar also went close to snatching all three points - and moving joint-top of the table with Barcelona - as substitute Borja Baston poked a good chance wide in the 86th minute.
Baston also claimed he was impeded by Malaga's Albentosa as he stretched to reach Junca's nod-down six yards out but the referee saw nothing untoward. Malaga had a penalty appeal of their own turned down in the first half after Roberto Rosales went down in the box.
Charles had a chance to open the scoring for Malaga just before the break after a quick break by Nordin Amrabat but Asier Riesgo saved from the Brazilian at point-blank range.
Eibar's best chance of the first half was an overhead kick from Adrian that flew wide. In the second half, Riesgo needed to be alert to prevent an interception from team-mate Mauro dos Santos ending up in his own net before Charles blasted another chance over.
Eibar threatened late on with Baston's near miss but Malaga had one last chance as Duje Cop missed the target attempting to flick in a ball drilled into the box.
