Controversial local derbies in the Valencian Community

A wild day on the football pitches of the Comunitat Valenciana, to be sure. Two hotly contested local derbies featured controversial endings. The first was in Vila-real, where Villarreal C hosted Castellón in a Tercera match. The visitors were leading 2-1 when Villarreal had a player sent off for his second yellow in the 75th minute. With 10 minutes to go, Castellón made their third and final substitution, which turned out to be important because at the 85:30 mark (you can see it here, 2:20 into the broadcast) Dani Villa challenged the keeper for a high ball with a high boot, the keeper was injured and couldn’t continue (Dani received a yellow). So with one of Castellón’s outfield players in goal, Villarreal equalized in the fifth minute of injury time.

Later in the day, Valencia welcomed Levante to the Mestalla, and this one featured its share of controversy too. Valencia’s second goal should have been waved off for offside, and wasn’t; Levante had a perfectly good goal waved off for a ‘foul’, which turned out to be one Valencia defender knocking another down!— and to top it off, Simone Zaza was awarded a penalty when he was clearly the player who ran across the Levante defender, and not the other way round. The froggies’ fans were livid. Highlights below.

Meanwhile Villarreal B were defeated at Cornellá, 3-0; second loss in a row, they remain second on 44 points, 10 behind Mallorca and three ahead of Elche, four ahead of Cornellá.