Luca de la Torre was effective over a half of action in Celta’s come-from-behind draw against Villarreal, while Samuel Shashoua saw his tenacious performance for Tenerife go unrewarded in a scoreless draw.
Celta Vigo 1 – 1 Villarreal
Luca de la Torre made his longest appearance of the season for Celta Vigo, playing the entire second half in midfield as they came back from an early deficit to earn a point against Villarreal
The sixth-place Yellow Submarine wasted no time in taking an early advantage over their hosts. Celta keeper Augustin Marchesin launched the ball downfield, however it was immediately recovered at the midfield stripe by the guests.
Immediately capitalizing on the gift, Samuel Chukwueze lobbed a pass forward to Gerard Moreno, who took one touch to settle the ball before firing his low, left-footed shot to the lower left corner.
Despite the early goal for the visitors, Celta were the more aggressive of the two teams over 90 minutes, taking 21 shots compared to Villarreal’s three, while forcing 40 year-old keeper Pepe Reina to make a remarkable seven saves.
The USMNT international de la Torre entered at the half in place of the lackluster Franco Cervi, and had a decent half of play, seeing one shot go slightly wide left, while setting up another chance and winning half of his six duels.
While not directly involved Celta’s equalizing goal in the 68th minute, the American did have a role in setting up the chance, when his dangerous run up the left side forced Villarreal’s José Luis Morales into a cynical professional foul to halt his progression, drawing a card and setting up fresh restart in the process.
In the ensuing play, Gabriel Veiga received the ball with space on the right side and hit Jørgen Strand Larsen in the right side of the area with a short through-ball, who beat Reina with his shot inside the near post for the equalizer.
With 15 minutes left, de la Torre had a crack at goal at the end of a counter, however saw his 25-yard blast fly just wide left of the mark.
With the point, Celta remain in 16th place, and will return to action on Friday with a trip to Mallorca.
Highlights of the game can be seen here.
CD Tenerife 0 – 0 SD Ponferradina
Samuel Shashoua put in a strong, 90-minute performance atop Tenerife’s attack on Saturday, however his best efforts were thwarted as they were forced to settle for a home draw against Ponferradina in La Liga 2 action.
Overall Shashoua took four shots, set up two chances, completed 92% of his 37 passing attempts, had 58 total ball contacts and beat opposing defenders on three of seven attempted dribbles.
His best chances came early, with a tenth-minute shot being blocked by a defender on its way towards goal, then another flying just over the crossbar four minutes later.
Overall, Tenerife were perhaps unlucky to be kept off the scoreboard, as they outshot their visitors by a 16-1 margin, and saw the opposing keeper Amir Abedzadeh ring up a man-of-the-match performance.
The result leaves Tenerife in 17th place, with a trip to Cartagena awaiting on Sunday.
Highlights of the game can be seen here.
Notes
Yunus Musah had the weekend off after Valencia were eliminated from the Supercopa de España during the midweek. They will be back in action on Wednesday when they visit Sporting Gijon in the Copa del Rey.
Luca Koleosho wasn’t in uniform for Espanyol on Sunday for their 2-1 road win over Getafe, but did score a goal with their second team over the weekend.
Jonathan Gomez is still playing with Real Sociedad’s second-team in the Spanish third division, and did not participate on Saturday in their 3-1 home win over Athletic Bilbao. They are currently third place in La Liga after 17 games.
Armando Shashoua didn’t make it off the UD Ibiza bench on Saturday for their 2-1 home loss to Las Palmas.
