UD Las Palmas faced the match with several new features in its formation, highlighting Dinko Horas’ debut in the League. The Croatian goalkeeper replaced his injured teammate, Cillessen, who stayed on the island after having participated in the first 7 days.
Luis Carrión’s team approached the match against Villarreal with personality. He fought for the ball from the start, put pressure in the attacking zone and was even able to take the lead on the scoreboard in a beautiful play by Alberto Moleiro. The Tenerife native reached the heart of the area after a slalom from the left, gave the ball to Fabio Silva, but the Portuguese missed his shot when he was in the goal mouth.
UD had up to three chances in the first period to score the opening goal of the night. The next two were works by McBurnie and again Fabio Silva. The Scot headed in the 10th minute after a cross from Benito. The goalkeeper Diego Conde rejected the ball in extremis and deflected it into a corner with his glove, at ground level. And again the local goalkeeper aborted a run by Fabio Silva, who was running down the central lane after a vertical pass from Moleiro.
The first moment of concern for Horkas came in the 34th minute. Sergi Cardona found himself loose with a ball in the area, but the Croatian goalkeeper denied him the goal by rejecting the ball with his foot.
However, one minute before the break, Pepé made it 1-0. Curiously, the previous action had been an attack by Januzaj whose center was rejected by the defense. And on the counterattack, between Barry and Pepé they created a vertical play that ended in a goal. The island protests against the former’s blows on Herzog and Alex Suárez had no effect.
The match gained even greater vitality at the beginning of the second half when, after a great play by Januzaj, Fabio Silva debuted his goal tally in Spain. The Portuguese finished the play with a soft kick on Conde’s exit.
The equalizer was a light that illuminated the path of a second half that, in reality, became complicated. At 50 minutes Horkas rejected a penalty that he himself had committed. Baena’s shot touched the goalkeeper and his crossbar before returning to the field of play.
In the 55th minute it was Januzaj who tried from outside the area with the misfortune of also finding the wood of the crossbar in his path.
The rest of the match was for Villarreal, who was going to forge their victory. In the 75th minute the referee annulled a shot on goal by Barry, due to it being clearly offside. However, history repeated itself in ’83 and the VAR Room validated the 2-1 for the Submarine.
Las Palmas did their best to try and equalize, but in extra time Alex Baena made it 3-1 with a quick gallop from side to side.
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