Malaga FC’s midfielder Luis Alberto (right) celebrates his goal against Athletic Bilbao with his teammate Sergio Sanchez.
The Spanish league made a stormy start on Saturday with Athletic Bilbao crashing 1-0 at nine-man Malaga, then Valencia battling out a late 1-1 draw at Sevilla.
Bilbao, who finished fourth last season, seemed to have their minds on the play-off for the Champions League against Napoli, which will be resolved on Wednesday after a 1-1 draw in Italy in the first leg.
The game in Malaga turned on an incident in the 36th minute, when Bilbao’s veteran keeper Gorka Iraizoz pulled down striker Roque Santa Cruz after a mistake from defender Carlos Gurpegui.
Iraizoz managed to save the resultant penalty from Luis Alberto, but the Malaga man calmly put away the rebound to make it 1-0.
Bilbao improved in the second half, with youngsters Iker Muniain and Ibai Gomez linking up well. Malaga veteran Duda was sent off three minutes from time for throwing Muniain to the ground, then Vitorino Antunes followed him to the dressing-rooms for an ugly foul on Gomez.
Goalkeeper Iraizoz seemed to have equalized for Bilbao after coming forward desperately for an injury-time free-kick, but the goal was controversially disallowed for offside.
Bilbao coach Ernesto Valverde was understandably annoyed by the refereeing decisions. “I really don’t want to say too much, but we had a goal strangely disallowed at the end plus a clear penalty not given.
“I don’t want to talk about the referee, I usually try not to.”
His Malaga counterpart, Javi Gracia, said: “I am pleased with how the match went ... The team has been strengthened by this. It is always important to win your first match.
“We are being rewarded for all the hard work we have done in the pre-season.”
Later on Saturday, 10-man Valencia did well to battle out a late draw at Europa League winners Sevilla.
Aleix Vidal gave Sevilla the lead just before half-time after being set up by Carlos Bacca.
Valencia - the Spanish team that has made most changes this summer - then had sub Rodrigo de Paul sent off just two minutes after coming on.
However, French supersub Lucas Orban equalized for the visitors three minutes from time by turning in a centre from Sofiane Feghouli. It was no more than Valencia deserved for their persistence and attitude.
“It would have been very unfair for us to have lost tonight,” said Valencia captain Dani Parejo.
“We never gave up trying to save the match, we showed a lot of character tonight.”
Meanwhile, Sevilla boss Unai Emery said: “The draw is a fair result, to be honest. They were better than us in several phases of the match, I have to admit that.”
Also Saturday, Granada came from behind to beat newly-promoted Deportivo Coruna 2-1.
Saturday’s late game saw Espanyol battle out a late 1-1 draw at Almeria.