Spain round-up: Mista puts Valencia on track
Saturday, January 26, 2002
Article summary
Valencia CF moved up to fifth in the Primera División on Saturday with a 1-0 win at UD Las Palmas.
Article body
UD Las Palmas dominated but lost for the second week running as Valencia CF forward Miguel Mista returned to the Canary Islands to haunt them on Saturday.
Repeat result
Last time out, the islanders also lost by the only goal of the game despite outplaying RC Deportivo La Coruña. This time, the former CD Tenerife man scored after just seven minutes against his former club's old rivals to repeat the result the last time these teams met in September.
Cañizares in form
Visiting goalkeeper Santiago Cañizares was the main reason for the victory, producing a series of saves to deny wave after wave of attacks. Defender Pablo Sarasua went close after only two minutes but the Spain No1 was equal to the effort. Five minutes later, Mista was released following a swift counterattck and fired home the only goal of the game via the post. Cañizares produced a number of fine other stops to keep Las Palmas at bay and move his side back into the top five. A second defeat in succession leaves Las Palmas desperate for a win next time out against Málaga CF.
Full of praise
RC Celta de Vigo coach Víctor Fernández was full of praise for his "heroic" side after they fought back to beat Real Sociedad 3-1 - despite being reduced to ten men. Fernández's men went behind to Dmitri Khokhlov's first-half strike, and things took a turn for the worse ten minutes after the break when Peter Luccin got his marching orders.
'Uphill struggle'
But two goals from Aleksandr Mostovoi and another in the last minute from Edu kept Sociedad rooted to the foot of the table. Fernández said: "I am very proud of my team, they were very strong and never gave up. It was heroic to fight back with one man less. The game looked like an uphill struggle and I think we battled for everything."
'Very disappointing'
Sociedad coach John Toshack could not contain his disappointment after watching his side throw away a golden opportunity to claim a rare win. "We didn't know how to control the game, it was very disappointing," said the Welshman. "Celta were much better than us in every way and we made a lot of mistakes. We never knew how to take advantage of our extra man or take our chances when we were ahead."
