The Saint: Las Palmas V Celta Vigo

16/10/17 – Images courtesy of UDLasPalmas.es

After the last home match against Leganes, Las Palmas coach Manolo Marquez has become the third La Liga manager to leave his job this season, calling a surprise news conference on Tuesday 26th September to announce his resignation after losing four of the first six games of the campaign.
Las Palmas were 15th in the League with six points. Marquez had never coached a top-flight side before landing the job in July after leading the club’s reserve team to promotion.
Now the new coach is Pako Ayestaran,the man sacked last year after a disastrous run with Valencia. He spent 11 years as assistant to Rafa Benitez, at Liverpool and Valencia, before becoming the boss. There’s been a very mixed reaction from the fans over his appointment.

Las Palmas get off to a lively start and Viera breaks down the right and wins a corner.

On 6mins, Bigas dismantles the 1st Vigo attack and plays a quick ball to continue his run forward. Mono finds him in the box but fails to control the ball and his shot goes wide.

Then on 12mins, more good play by Viera, who takes a shot from the edge of the box, going just wide.

On 16mins Vigo have their first real attack, a good ball finds Emre Mor, who slots it home in the bottom corner to make it 1-0 to Vigo. That was hard on the home side and totally against the run of play. Then 4mins later, some great work by the impressive Sisto sets up Spanish international Aspas, who somehow scores from an impossibly tight angle at the near post. 2-0 Vigo. Keeper Chichzola will be disappointed to have been beaten from that angle.

Las Palmas start to get back into the game and win a few corners and Garcia goes close with a header. Then somehow Viera hits the post when he should have scored, after he was left unmarked at the far post but his header was parried onto the post and cleared away.

Calleri too misses a good chance after being set up by Viera. More chances for the home side come and go with Mono and Herman getting close within mins of each other.

The dangerous Sisto hits a great shot from the edge of the box which goes just wide.

Half Time – Las Palmas 0 Celta Vigo 2
The Sain’s opinion – With 61% of the play and 7 corners against only 2 , this shows how much LP have been in control of the first half but still find themselves 2-0 down. They had loads of ½ chances but they need to start taking them to get back into this match. The introduction of Remy might be the key if the new manager wants to change things.

The home side start slow even with the introduction of Remy, and a cracking ball by Sisto down the line finds Vigo winger Sanchez who plays across the box to find Aspas who fires home to make it 3-0. Not the start the home side was looking for!

On 52mins, LP play a ball over the top and the Vigo keeper comes rushing out and takes Calleri out when running through on goal. Straight red card for the away keeper. Could this be the moment the home side gets back into the match?

On 62mins Calleri again blasts over when he should have done better. The home side are really struggling to break down the 10 men and things get even worse on 71mins, when a quick break again by the away side down the left, plays the ball across to Hernandez who slots it home to make it 4-0.

“Unbelieveable Geoff how we are 4-0 down against 10 men!!!!”

More poor play by sub Lemos, loses the ball and Aspas makes no mistakes finishing off in the bottom corner to make it 5!!!

At this point, over half of the very disappointing crowd of just 15,799 are already heading for the exit.

They miss a mini come back, 2 goals in injury time, first from sub Vitolo and then the lively looking Remy makes a too little too late final score for the home side.

Final score – Las Palmas 2 Celta Vigo 5

The Verdict of The Saint – Where do I start, not the best beginnings for the new boss in his first home game! LP started well and played some good game in the first half but again poor finishing let them down, then conceding straight after half time when they should have been on the front foot really knocked them.

Posted by The Canary News

After Vigo went down to 10 men, things got even worse and the home defence went missing in action as they conceded some poor goals.
The crowd let the players and the manager know how they were feeling with ½ of them leaving early, not attending the game or booing at the final whistle. Las Palmas I’m afraid to say have a battle this season to stay up. We look very weak up front, wide open at the back and we are not taking our chances. We could be in for a very long season.