Pablo Piatti on target as Valencia beat Espanyol to go second in Spain
Valencia moved up to second place in La Liga, two points behind Barcelona, with a 3-1 win over Espanyol at the Mestalla on Sunday.
A close-range finish from Pablo Piatti put Valencia ahead after eight minutes and second-half goals by Dani Parejo and Paco Alcácer wrapped up the win, before Sergio García pulled a goal back with a late penalty.
Valencia are unbeaten under their new coach Nuno Espírito Santo’s and playing with a confidence and fluidity not seen since Unai Emery was in charge.
Afterwards Espírito Santo said: “We have to win at lot of points to qualify for the Champions League. That is our goal and that is what we are going to try and do.”
Valencia were still without their summer loan signing from Manchester City Alvaro Negredo, who is recovering from injury and has yet to make his debut.
Jonathas de Jesus scored one and made another as Elche earned their first win of the season by beating Rayo Vallecano 3-2.
Elche went ahead through a dipping free-kick from their captain Edu Albácar, but Rayo equalised just before the break through Gaël Kakuta, who is on loan from Chelsea. Kakuta took Alberto Bueno’s long pass, cut inside and slotted home.
But Jonathas restored Elche’s lead when he beat Rayo’s central defenders and swept the ball home. He then set up Pedro Mosquera, whose deflected effort increased Elche’s advantage. A penalty from Bueno proved too little too late for Rayo.
A Carlos Bacca’s first-half penalty and an Alex Vidal tap-in three minutes from time steered Sevilla to a 2-0 win over Getafe at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium.
“With all respect to Getafe, our goal was to win this game,” said Sevilla’s coach, Unai Emery. “The key was to play at a fast pace so they didn’t feel comfortable and we did just that.”
Elsewhere, unbeaten Granada drew 0-0 with Villarreal in a dour encounter.
