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Garcia grabs late win for Osasuna; Espanyol, Villarreal blank rivals

Sports Desk, Sep 4 (EFE).- In the fourth week of this season’s La Liga action on Sunday, Osasuna notched its third win so far in Pamplona, Spain, ensconcing itself in the upper echelons of the La Liga table at the expense of Rayo Vallecano thanks to the goal scored “in extremis” by Ruben Garcia after a great effort by Abde that broke the tie prevailing at that moment.

Aimar got Osasuna on the board first, albeit not until the 55th minute, and then Lejeune tied things up 20 minutes later from the corner of the area, but the 18,745 fans in the stands at the El Sardar stadium had to wait until the 90th minute for a late strike by Ruben Garcia that put the home squad over the top.

Osasuna now sits in fourth place with 9 points and will go up against Almeria in Andalusia next week.

Meanwhile, Denmark’s Martin Braithwaite – signed last week from FC Barcelona – finally scored for Espanyol in the 83rd minute to give the squad its first win of the season, this one on Athletic Club’s home turf at San Mames, thus dealing their rivals their first loss this year.

Athletic was just not able to create enough danger for the visitors and Ernesto Valverde never found the proper time to send in Ander Herrera, although Martinez did send in his two recent signees – Braithwaite and Alvaro Fernandez – in a match played in 30 C (86 F) heat and before some 41,600 fans.

Elsewhere in La Liga, Villarreal drubbed Elche 4-0, scoring twice in the first half, and then after the break getting the match well in hand and scoring twice more.

It was Gerard Moreno and Lo Celso who scored before the break, and – although Elche looked better in the second half – the visitors could not manufacture any tallies and Unai Emery’s boys had no problems notching the 3-0 thanks to Coquelin and the 4-0 with Morales in the spotlight.

Finally, Valencia smashed Getafe 5-1, easily gaining control of the game in the first half at Mestalla with three of its tallies in the first 15 minutes of play, to the stunned astonishment of the Madrid squad.

It was Toni Lato (minute 7), Brazil’s Samuel Lino (minute 14) and Samu Castillejo (minute 16) who quickly asserted themselves in brilliant form for the initial scores, while Getafe never really posed any danger at all to their hosts.

Later, it was Nico in the 65th minute and Hugo Duro 2 minutes later who scored the other tallies for Valencia, while Gaston got Getafe a consolation goal in the 78th minute.

EFE ibn-le-cta/jl/bp

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