VITORIA, Spain – The diligent duo of Alfonso Pedraza and Munir overcame a Celta Vigo side which, despite dominating the ball for most of the match, only managed to overcome the rock-solid defense of Alaves once, thanks to a touch of genius from Iago Aspas in injury time.

The squads were barely on the stadium turf when Alaves struck the first blow after a free kick from Victor Laguardia ended in a shot by Munir that was finished off by Alfonso Pedraza to go ahead 1-0 at the 4th minute.

From that moment, Celta tried to take control, and almost tied it up when a promising shot by Iago Aspas was successfully rejected by Rodrigo Ely.

Then, at minute 17 under a heavy downpour, Munir widened Alaves’s lead by taking a spot-on pass from Ibai Gomez and getting it past the goalkeeper to make it 2-0.

The efficiency of Abelardo’s squad surprised Celta, which never stopped trying to reach the goal of a well-organized rival that could fall back on defense with impressive speed.

At minute 38, Celta’s Wass came close to scoring but the ball hit the crossbar and fell easily into the hands of the Alaves goalkeeper.

It wasn’t until minute 91 that Iago Aspas took advantage of a ball lost by Alaves and dodged masterfully around three rivals and, with a left footed kick, slammed it into the net, and so the game ended 2-1.