Alaves and Sevilla off to winning starts as LaLiga season gets underway

Los Albiazules made the most of their home advantage and the ill discipline of Getafe to get off to the best possible start in the new campaign at Estadio de Mendizorroza.

They generated just short of 2.0xG from 18 shots on goal as they controlled the match from start to finish. However, despite their dominance, they struggled to hit the target with many of their shots sailing wide of the mark.

Things got even more complicated for Getafe in the 38th minute when Kiko Femenía was sent off for a rash challenge. He was initially shown a yellow card but it was upgraded to red after the intervention of the VAR.

The home side began to throw players forward in search of an opening goal in the second half with a couple of sharp chances before they broke the deadlock in the 70th minute.

Nahuel Tenaglia won the ball around the halfway line before unleashing Mariano Diaz down the right wing. Diaz got into space and launched a cross straight onto the head of Tenaglia, who had carried on his run into the box, and he powered the ball past David Soria.

Even though Alaves were creating all the chances, they had to wait till stoppage time at the end of the match to secure the win when Diaz and Mikel Rodriguez scored in quick succession.

Diaz scored a wonderful solo goal after taking the ball up to the edge of the box before unleashing a pinpoint, curling shot into the far top corner.

He went on another mazy run into the box moments later and teed up Mikel Rodriguez with a square ball and the striker made no mistake from close range to make it 3-0.

In the other match in LaLiga on Saturday, Sevilla emerged from a hotly contested encounter against Rayo Vallecano with a 2-1 win at Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.

Even though they went on to win the match, it could not have got off to a worse start for Sevilla as Rayo Vallecano took the lead inside the opening five minutes.

It all started with a poor backpass from Arouna Sangante to goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos, who made a poor clearance under pressure that didn't make it past the halfway line.

That was followed by another defensive howler from Sangante, who was caught on the ball by Alvaro Garcia, who nudged it past both Sangante and Vlachodimos before finishing into an empty net.

They could have doubled their advantage moments later when Garcia threaded a lovely ball into Randy Nteka but the striker skied his chance over the bar.

The visitors continued to push and looked by far the better of the two sides in the first half.

Sevilla fought back into the game after the break and were handed a golden opportunity to level the scores when they were awarded a penalty in the 51st minute, which Jon Guridi converted calmly.

The two sides continued to trade chances in a back-and-forth encounter but things got more complicated for the home side in the 88th minute when Kike Salas was shown a red card for a horrendous challenge on Jorge de Frutos.

However, despite being a man down, they stole the win late on when they were awarded a second penalty deep into stoppage time. Peque Fernandez took his time over the spot kick to burn as many minutes as he could before blasting the ball into the top left corner to make it 2-1 and secure a dramatic win for his side.