Las Palmas went down to yet another away defeat tonight, this time at the hands of Leganés, losing 3-0

Las Palmas knew they were in for a dogfight. Right from the start Leganés made their physical presence felt whenever Las Palmas tried to get forward. After just 4 minutes Samuel got in behind the away team’s defenders, but he skewed his shot wide. The players missing in Setién’s team caused a number of changes to the starting line-up. The most important was a starting place up front for Erik Expósito from the second team who has had a successful season with a good number of goals. Javi Varas returned as the goalkeeping change seven matches on. The player who has played most this season, Roque Mesa, started on the subs’ bench, while Jonathan Viera, Vicente Gómez and Boateng stayed back on the island, through injury..

The ball rebounded off the woodwork following a drive by Rico from well outside the box in the 13th minute. Las Palmas, who were holding back, were suffering at times as they were unable to play in their forwards. Leganés were playing for survival, and this was apparent as they went forward quickly in search of goal-scoring opportunities to set them up for victory. Las Palmas had several counter attacks that came to nothing in a match that was continually interrupted by fouls and inaccurate passing. Half time came with the scores 0-0.

The second half started with Las Palmas seemingly finding more fluency, but yet another howler by Javi Varas turned the game on its head. The goalkeeper, in his attempts to play the ball out to David Simón played it straight into the path of Guerrero, who laid the ball square for team-mate comapaño Luciano to knock the ball into an empty net (min. 54). Four minutes later, another slip up at the back with a bad clearance by Hélder Lopes ended with Leganés’ second simple tap in for Guerrero. With the away team shell shocked, Lemos carelessly committed a penalty which Guerrero stepped up to make the scores 3-0 for the home team.

In just six minutes UD Las Palmas had thrown away all their good work, against their rivals who gleefully made the most of their generous gifts. By now Leganés poured forward at every opportunity in search of further goals, while Las Palmas tried hard to pull a goal back. The terraces at the Butarque stadium were left to celebrate a victory which virtually seals their survival in the top flight, while Las Palmas showed yet again their shortcomings away from home.