Rate it!

2 votes

Valencia prevailed 2-0 against the ten men of Sevilla at the Mestalla thanks to goals from Juan Mata and Pablo Hernandez.

A dour first-half - played on a pitch that was hardly conducive to the flowing football usually advocated by these sides - was notable only for a dubious red card shown to Sevilla's Freddie Kanoute.

The Malian felt a sense of injustice having been sent-off for two clumsy rather than malicious fouls, but it changed the dynamic of a game that had up until then misfired.

With the second yellow coming on the stroke of half time both sides had the interval to adjust. But Valencia took immediate advantage of their numerical supremacy when Mata fired past Palop from the edge of the area with only two second half minutes gone.

Having offered very little in terms of attacking endeavour in the first half the sending off only compounded Sevilla's lack of invention. On one of their rare forays forward Valencia broke and Pablo sealed the win with a wonderful chipped finish.

Neither team were at their best but Sevilla were particularly poor - mustering only two efforts on goal throughout the whole encounter. And it was the home side that had the better of the opening exchanges, but, bar a Carlos Marchena drive in the opening moments and a Pablo half-volley, made very little impression on Palop's goal.

As a spectacle the second half fared little better, Valencia had more of the ball but failed to take full advantage of their dominance. While Sevilla continued to toil and even the introduction of summer acquisition Alvaro Negredo could not rouse the visitors and the game limped towards the final whistle.

Elsewhere, Atletico Madrid made a poor start to their La Liga campaign when they were humbled 3-0 at Malaga.

Nabil Baha gave Malaga the lead against Atletico in the 33rd minute and Manu Torres was on hand to smash in a loose ball from close range for their second just after the hour. Xavi Torres completed the rout with a header in the 90th minute.

Atletico coach Abel Resino was sent to the stands midway through the first half for protesting the referee's decision to caution Argentina forward Sergio Aguero.

Villarreal surrendered a 1-0 lead at Osasuna to draw 1-1, promoted Xerez lost 2-0 at Real Mallorca in their first match in Spain's top flight, Athletic Bilbao beat visiting Espanyol 1-0 and Getafe thumped Racing Santander 4-1.

Marcus Foley / Reuters