La Liga Week 28 Review 1/2

Real Sociedad and Villarreal had saw their hopes of Champions League football next season dashed after defeats in La Liga Week 28.

Las Palmas 1-0 Villarreal

Las Palmas beat Villarreal 1-0 on Friday to leave the Yellow Submarine’s hopes of Champions League qualification in tatters.

Samu Castillejo almost gave Villarreal an instant lead when he bent a shot from the right on target, only to have it pushed away by Raul Lizoain.

Nonetheless, Kevin-Prince Boateng nodded home a deep cross in just the 10th minute for his eighth La Liga goal of the season.

That was quickly followed by Villarreal defender Victor Ruiz seeing red after he took down last man Boateng.

Mauricio Lemos looked to continue his rich vein of goalscoring form from a free kick, but Andres Fernandez tipped the centre-back’s strike over, before Boateng had an overhead kick parried wide.

Eibar 1-1 Espanyol

Oscar Duarte’s horror knee injury overshadowed a 1-1 draw at Ipurua on Saturday, which did little for Eibar or Espanyol.

Former Middlesbrough striker Kike got the ball rolling for Eibar when he sent a near-post cross past Diego Lopez.

Espanyol top goalscorer Gerard Moreno headed a corner wide in the dying embers of the first half, but Jose Manuel Jurado made no mistake with his first-time finish after he was level when meeting a swirling cross in the hosts’ box.

The Basques felt they should’ve been given a penalty when David Lopez appeared to push Pedro Leon in the Espanyol area, but Diego Lopez was still needed to keep out Bebe’s angled volley.

The game ended on a sad note, with Duarte collapsing unopposed after a clearance. The Costa Rican was later diagnosed with a damaged anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and is not expected back until the start of next year.

Alaves 1-0 Real Sociedad

An action-packed Basque derby on Saturday saw 10-man Real Sociedad fall 1-0 to Alaves, putting their Champions League aspirations in grave doubt.

Xabi Prieto skipped past one then another but couldn’t beat Fernando Pacheco, before an awful backpass was smothered by Gero Rulli at the other end, despite Deyverson claiming otherwise

Alaves’ own No 10, Oscar Romero, was denied by Rulli at the near post, but Deyverson was on hand to turn in Theo Hernandez’s low cross from the left.

The striker could’ve bagged himself a hat-trick, but his first header was saved by the Argentine, while his second hit the post.

La Real’s evening would go from bad to worse as Esteban Granero was shown a second yellow for diving.

Real Betis 2-0 Osasuna

Real Betis all-but-confirmed their place in La Liga next season with a 2-0 win against Segunda-bound Osasuna on Saturday.

Salvatore Sirigu was on hand to deal with Carlos Clerc’s misguided clearance, which almost looped over the goalkeeper, but he could do nothing other than watch Rafa Navarro poke a finish past him after Nikola Vujadinovic wrongly expected an offside call.

Clerc then came close to redeeming himself when he cut inside from left and pulled the ball back for Kenan Kodro, but the Bosnian’s first-time shot crashed against the bar.

Betis put the game to bed through chief marksman Ruben Castro, who sprung the basement boys’ offside trap, rounded Sirigu and scored.

The Italian custodian, meanwhile, stopped a low cross on his line as Kenan missed a far-post cross by a whisker.

Two more chances saw Roberto Torres denied by Antonio Adan’s quick thinking, the former madridista rushing out to smother the midfielder’s one-on-one, before Sirigu batted away Ruben Pardo’s free kick.

La Liga - Club News