Too many changes for the Submarine: Rayo 2-1 Villarreal

I hope this one doesn't come back to bite us.  A makeshift Villarreal fell 2-1 today to Rayo Vallecano, courtesy of a goal with 10 minutes left by Miku,  the only attempt from either side between the posts in a dour second half.  The first featured an early goal by Javi Guerra and a wonderful first-time volley from Adrián.

Rayo dominated the first half as Mario and Adrián Marín both struggled with Rayo's pace, and Pablo Hernandez and Roberto Trashorras ran midfield.  Jonathan dos Santos and Manu Trigueros just were not a good choice to play together in the pivote--Bruno Soriano's absence was significant, so too was Tomas Pina's.

After the break Villarreal clearly wanted to tighten things up, and so Rodri coming into the pivote so Jonathan dos Santos could go on the right side made sense.  However, by then Denis Suarez had come off so that only made our attacking options more limited.  Nahuel, his replacement, struggled and while Rodri battled pretty well in midfield, he managed to nullify a great chance to tie the score in injury time, trying to take the ball himself from a free kick, not realizing Bakambu was coming in with a great chance to tap it home.

It just didn't seem as though Villarreal cared much about this game, which is too bad given our lead for fourth is now down to six points.  This match was probably our best chance to notch an away win before the last weekend of the campaign, so let's hope we defeat Real Sociedad and Depor at home.  If we do that, this one probably won't matter, but if we don't, and one of the clubs behind us posts several wins, we could be in danger of throwing away a nearly insurmountable lead for the last CL spot.

Vallecas was fun as always, and these three points coupled with another Granada loss really help Rayo out.

Not sure Baptistao is going to come back next year, Nahuel needs to get loaned out somewhere.  That's about all I got from this one.  Endavant!!