New Valencia coach
Gary Neville remains without a La Liga win after his side twice had to recover
from a goal down to rescue a fortunate 2-2 draw at home to Getafe in an
entertaining game on Saturday.
Valencia were held
1-1 at Eibar in Neville's Spanish top-flight debut last weekend and while their
latest performance showed promise it also underlined how much work he still has
ahead to turn the Singapore-owned club's fortunes around.
Valencia have 22
points in eighth after 16 matches, one behind seventh-placed Sevilla.
The Europa League
champions could only manage a 0-0 draw at city rivals Real Betis in a typically
passionate derby littered with fouls and yellow cards and short on quality.
Atletico Madrid can
climb above Barcelona into top spot if they avoid defeat at Malaga on Sunday,
when third-placed Real Madrid host neighbours Rayo Vallecano.
Barca, who play in
the Club World Cup final against River Plate in Japan on Sunday, and Atletico
each have 35 points, with the champions ahead on goal difference, while Real
are on 30.
Pablo Sarabia put
Getafe in front in the 10th minute at Valencia's Mestalla stadium and Paco
Alcacer levelled for the home side with a cracking volley five minutes later.
The visitors were in
front again in the 22nd minute thanks to a fine strike from Angel Lafita before
Santi Mina made it 2-2 10 minutes before halftime with his first touch after
coming on for the injured Jose Luis Gaya.
Valencia failed to
make their superiority count after the break and Getafe had three clear chances
to win the game late on as some worrying gaps opened up in the home defence.
Substitute Alvaro
Vazquez was denied by a superb last-ditch tackle from fullback Joao Cancelo two
minutes from time before Lafita fluffed a volley in added time when unmarked at
the back post and then crashed a drive off the top of the crossbar.
"We made things
difficult for ourselves because when you allow teams to counter attack it's
always a problem," former England defender Neville told a news conference.
"It's a shame
because the effort was massive and the players gave their all," added the
former Manchester United fullback, who has a contract until the end of the
season.
At Betis's Benito
Villamarin stadium in Seville, Sevilla forward Kevin Gameiro had the only two
genuine chances of an ugly encounter but the Frenchman was denied each time by
goalkeeper Antonio Adan.
Sevilla coach Unai
Emery threw on former Spain pair Fernando Llorente and Jose Antonio Reyes with
around 10 minutes left but they were unable to find a winning goal, leaving
Betis in 11th on 20 points.
Espanyol, with new
coach Constantin Galca making his La Liga debut after taking over on Monday,
climbed to 12th with a 1-0 home win over promoted Las Palmas, who remain mired
in the relegation places.
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