The Canary Islanders’ effectiveness sentenced an inaccurate Villarreal side
Villarreal were defeated on their visit to the Canary Islands. Kirian scored twice and Herzog got another to condemn the Submarine, who, despite having chances and good stretches of play throughout the game, were unable to fight for the points against UD Las Palmas.
At the Estadio de Gran Canaria, two teams with similar dynamics faced each other. UD Las Palmas, after losing in their 2024 opener against FC Barcelona (1-2) and being eliminated from the cup against Tenerife (2-0), were hosting a Villarreal side who failed to beat Valencia in their first game of the year (3-1) and who also failed to get past the round of 32 of the knockout tournament. In this situation, both teams were looking for a win to break the negative dynamic and move further away from the danger zone.
Villarreal waited in their own half for UD Las Palmas, who took control of the ball for the first few minutes of the match. The Canary Islanders grew into the game and in the 10th minute a combination inside the box between Moleiro and Kirian led to the first goal of the game.
Ten minutes later, Morales had a great chance to tie the game after a one-on-one with Álvaro Vallés, but the striker sent the ball over the crossbar.
The Yellow Submarine, today in their red away kit, were still looking for an equaliser. Morales, in three quarters of the pitch, filtered a ball to Gerard Moreno who, inside the box, took shape and shot with his left foot, but the ball hit the post and went wide.
Villarreal’s clearest chance of the first half came from a set piece in the 35th minute. Parejo, in a central position close to the halfway line of the box, dared a direct shot and only the crossbar prevented the attempt from becoming a one-all draw.
Just two minutes later, Comesaña, astutely, quickly took a free kick which found Gerard Moreno free behind the defence, but he was unable to beat Vallés from a one-on-one situation.
At the end of the first 45 minutes, despite their persistence, Marcelino García Toral’s side were behind on the scoreboard.
The second half did not start in the best way for Villarreal. Herzog made it 2-0 in the 51st minute from a corner kick by Sandro.
Marcelino reacted and introduced Sorloth and Kiko Femenía in place of Morales and Altimira to give a change of pace to the team, who had not come out of the game well in the second half.
On the hour mark, Ilias Akhomach had a long-range effort just wide of the post, but Álex Vallés was denied.
UD Las Palmas took advantage of a counter-attack to score another goal, again through Kirian. Villarreal were 3-0 down in the 64th minute of the match.
Villarreal continued to look for the home side’s goal, but were unable to close the gap and finally lost 3-0 at the Estadio de Gran Canaria.
After the defeat against UD Las Palmas (3-0), Villarreal CF will be back in action on Saturday 20th January, when they play the first match of the year at the Estadio de la Cerámica against RCD Mallorca at 4:15pm CET.
Line-ups:
UD Las Palmas: A. Vallés; Álex Suárez, Herzog, Mika Marmol, Cardona; M. Haddadi (min. 86, Iñaki), Javi Muñoz, Perrone, Kirian (min. 86, M. Cardona), A. Moleiro (min. 60, Marvin); Sandro.
Villarreal CF: Jörgensen; A. Alti (min. 56, Kiko F.), E. Bailly, J. Cuenca, A. Pedraza (min. 68, Alberto M.); Álex B. (min. 75, M. Trigueros), Parejo, Comesaña (min. 68, Coquelin), I. Akhomach; Gerard, A. J. Morales (min. 56, Sorloth).
Goals: 1-0. Min. 8: Kirian. 2-0. Min. 51: Herzog. 3-0. Min. 64: Kirian.
Referee: Iglesias Villanueva (Comité Gallego). Booked: Álex Suárez, Javi Muñoz, Herzog, S. Cardona (UD Las Palmas); A. Alti, Álex B., E. Bailly (Villarreal CF).
Matchday information: Match between UD Las Palmas and Villarreal CF corresponding to Matchday 20 of the 2023/24 LALIGA season at the Estadio de Gran Canaria.
