Valencia finally won their first game of the season in La Liga Week 7, while Real Betis needed a late goal to beat Leganes.
The weekend began at Vallecas a day early, when Rayo Vallecano rescued a 2-2 draw with in-form Espanyol.
Borja Iglesias and Esteban Granero cancelled out Raul de Tomas’ opener, but Gael Kakuta was on hand to convert a penalty just two minutes after the restart.
Although that result wasn’t enough to lift Rayo out of the relegation zone, a 1-0 victory over La Real was for Valencia.
Kevin Gameiro was Los Che’s saviour, choosing the 36th minute to also score his first goal in the famous black and white.
On the other hand, nearby Villarreal went a sixth straight home game without a win as they lost 1-0 to newly-promoted Real Valladolid.
Leo Suarez scored the only goal of the game against his parent club to propel Valladolid into the top half of La Liga.
Staying on the East Coast, Levante beat high-flying Alaves 2-1 to end a run of three straight defeats.
Goals from Jason Remeseiro and Tono Garcia wiped out Ruben Sobrino’s opener, condeming Alaves to their first loss since the opening day of the season.
Finally, Betis made it back-to-back wins for the first time in 2018-19 as they battled to a 1-0 victory over Leganes.
Leganes were on a high after their giant-killing of Barcelona midweek, but their performance – described by Marca as ‘catenaccio’ for its defensive nature – was left in vain when Loren Moron popped up with another last-minute winner for the Andalusians.
