Uche’s hat trick and two goals from Perbet give the victory to the Submarine
Villarreal celebrated the “Three Wise Men Day”, from the Spanish Christmas tradition, with a great victory against Rayo Vallecano (2-5). Marcelino’s men managed to control the match from the very beginning. Rayo Vallecano worked very hard but couldn’t stop the Yellow typhoon, commanded by Ike Uche -the Nigerian striker scored three goals- and Perbet, who scored the other two goals. The Submarine gets the 6th position on the ranking and are now only two points away from Champions League positions.
Rayo Vallecano had a very intense start and things were not looking good for Villarreal initially. The Yellows managed to reverse the situation and only after ten minutes they were already ahead on the score. The locals had scoring chances at first -Asenjo had an excellent performance with very important saves- but Marcelino’s men hit first.
Around the 9th minute, Moi passed the ball to Perbet and the Frenchman served an assist to Uche, that crossed the ball to the goal on the Submarine’s first scoring chance of the match. The good stuff had just started. Two minutes later, Moi Gómez once again, served the ball from the left side to Perbet who scored the second goal of the night.
The match was very now under Villarreal’s control, but the battle had just began. Rayo had another scoring chance around the 26th minute with Jonathan Viera hitting the post and Lass had a great chance a couple of minutes later but Asenjo replied with a great save. They were constantly attacking at this point and Villarreal brought their defensive line a few meters back. Just five minutes from half time, Moi received the ball from Uche, changed pace and got inside the box serving an outstanding assist to Perbet who made the 0-3 for Villarreal.
During the second half, the Submarine tried to keep up with the same strategy with a strong defense. Aquino came in as a replacement of Hernán Pérez and the Mexican had his chances right away. Around the 56th minute he left two defenders behind and served the ball to Perbet who didn’t manage to shoot properly. His shot was blocked by Rayo’s goalie and the rebound got back to Aquino, who served the ball this time to Uche who made the 4th goal of the night.
The ease to score was such that around the 64th minute, Trigueros shot a great freekick that made the goalkeeper struggled to save it and of course Uche was around to take advantage of the rebound and score the 5th goal. The match was totally crazy at this point and Rayo scored its first around the 67th minute when Castillo crossed the ball on a one on one against Asenjo.
After the locals made their goal, Villarreal opted to manage its strength on the pitch. During the injury time Castillo scored the final 2-5 with a penalty shot.
Match facts:
Rayo Vallecano: Cobeño; Tito (Mojica, 46′), Gálvez, Rodri, Nacho; Trashorras, Adrián (Castillo, 46′), Lass, Jonathan Viera; Saúl and Bueno (Adri Embarba, 64′).
Villarreal CF: Asenjo; Mario, Musacchio, Chechu Dorado (Pantic, 55′), Jaume Costa; Pina, Trigueros, Moi Gómez (Bruno, 70′), Hernán Pérez (Aquino, 46′); Uche and Perbet.
Goals: 0-1, min. 9: Uche. 0-2, min. 11: Perbet. 0-3, min. 40: Perbet. 0-4, min. 56: Uche. 0-5, min. 63: Uche. 1-5, min. 67: Castillo. 2-5, min. 90: Castillo, (penalty).
Referee: Alejandro José Hernández Hernández (Las Palmas). Yellow cards to Trashorras (34′), Gálvez (44′) and Mojica (46′) for Rayo Vallecano and Perbet (74′), Pina (77′) and Uche (90′) for Villarreal.
