Yunus Musah put in a strong midfield performance for Valencia in an otherwise toothless loss by the team, while Samuel Shashoua continued his come-back tour with Tenerife with his first goal of the season.
Valencia 0 – 1 FC Cadiz
An active outing by Yunus Musah was wasted by Valencia, as they were never able to bounce back from an early Cadiz goal in their narrow home loss on Friday.
The American took up his usual spot on the right side of Gennaro Gattuso’s midfield, playing the full 90 minutes while picking up his league-leading seventh yellow card of the season.
Over the course of the game, he had 68 touches, completed 87% of his 52 passing attempts, took one shot from inside the area that was blocked by the defense, won three of four tackles and half of his 12 duels, made two interceptions and made seven recoveries.
The visitors struck early, already netting the eventual winner less than nine minutes after the opening whistle. Receiving the ball just inside his own half of the field near the right sideline, Ruben Sobrino advanced to the opposing endline under constant pressure and cut inwards, before dropping a pass back to Rubén Alcaraz at the top of the box.
The 31 year-old struck cleanly with his first touch, looping the ball through the defense to the left side of goal, leaving Giorgi Mamardashvili no chance at a save.
Seeing his team dominate possession without actually creating any danger, Gattuso tried to switch things up at halftime by bringing on André Almeida & Justin Kluivert in place of Musah’s midfield partners Hugo Guillamon and Ilaix Moriba.
However, this did little to spur on his team, as they overall managed a whopping 76% of possession without creating any real moments of danger for opposing keeper Jeremias Ledesma.
In the end, the final whistle blew much to the disappointment of the hosts awarding the three points to Cadiz.
Valencia drop to 11th place with the loss, and will be back in action on Wednesday, when they face Real Madrid in the King Fahd International Stadium in Saudia Arabia for the semifinal of the Supercopa de España.
Highlights of the game can be seen here.
FC Malaga 1 – 1 CD Tenerife
Samuel Shashoua capped his recent return to action following injury problems, making the most of his halftime substitute appearance by striking the opening goal for Tenerife in their draw at Malaga.
Following a scoreless opening half, Shashoua was brought on by head coach Luis Ramis for starting central midfielder Teto, and had a strong outing in his half of play.
He completed 91% of his 22 passing attempts amidst 39 total ball contacts, created one chance in addition to his score, was successful on one of his three dribble attempts and drew one foul.
His goal came in the 75th minute and was the product of smart positioning. Ivan Romero accelerated into the six-yard box from the left and dropped a short pass back to a wide-open Shashoua, who simply redirected the ball into the upper left corner from six yards out with the inside of his left foot.
The lead only stood for 11 minutes, as the hosts equalized shortly before the final whistle. Ruben Castro did the hard work, beating two closely-marking defenders beyond the top edge of the 18-yard box before whipping his low 20-yarder into the lower left corner to secure the 1-1 draw.
Tenerife are in 17th place following the result, two points out of the relegation spots and well adrift of even the promotion playoff spots. They are back in action on Saturday when they host Ponferradina.
Highlights of the game can be seen here.
Notes
Luca de la Torre was a 94th-minute garbage time substitute for Celta Vigo on Friday night, as an early goal from Iago Aspas was enough to ensure them the 1-0 road win over Elche.
Luca Koleosho did not appear in uniform for Espanyol in their 2-2 home draw against Girona on Saturday.
Jonathan Gomez is playing with Real Sociedad’s second team and was not present for the first-team’s 2-0 road win over Almeria on Sunday.
Armando Shashoua was a 73rd-minute substitute for UD Ibiza on Sunday, coming into the game as they searched unsuccessfully for an equalizer against their hosts Eibar in a 1-0 road loss.
