Buenos Aires, March 8 (NA) – Villarreal defeated Elche 2-1 in the match they played today at the Estadio de la Cerámica, for the 27th matchday of LaLiga, the top tier of Spanish football. According to the Argentine News Agency, the goals for the home team were scored by winger Tajon Buchanan and defender Santiago Mouriño, while Elche's consolation goal was scored by forward André Silva. With the victory, the "Yellow Submarine" moves into fourth place with 54 points, the same as Atlético de Madrid, while the visitors are in 17th place with 26 points, one above the relegation zone. Additionally, Real Betis lost 2-0 to Getafe but remains in the UEFA Europa League qualification, Valencia defeated Deportivo Alavés 3-2 late in the game, and Sevilla drew 1-1 with Rayo Vallecano to escape six points clear of the relegation battle. The first chance of the game came from the visitors in the 19th minute, with a high turnover that allowed forward Álvaro Rodríguez a one-on-one, but his shot went wide over the bar. The home team had no dangerous approaches until the 29th minute, with an exceptional individual play by attacker Georges Mikautadze, who advanced from the left to the center of the area, evading three rivals, although his shot was low and was contained by Argentine goalkeeper Matías Dituro. Villarreal opened the scoring two minutes later, with a right-sided imbalance from Buchanan, who got rid of his marker, entered the area, and shook it with a powerful and high shot that went in at the near post. Furthermore, at 40 minutes, a long pass from midfielder Santiago Comesaña put Mouriño through one-on-one on the right, who shot high but looking for the far post, and made it 2-0. The home team had another chance 10 minutes into the second half, with a powerful though centralized shot from forward Nicolas Pépé, which Dituro deflected, leaving a rebound that Mikautadze could not push into the goal. Elche could pull one back when it was 36 minutes of the second half, with a combination between Portuguese players: midfielder Martim Neto took a corner to the near post for André Silva to appear, whose powerful header surprised goalkeeper Luiz Junior on his right post and scored the final 2-1.
