Celta Vigo News

Aspas, who has spent the majority of his career at Celta and forgettable seasons with Liverpool and Sevilla, has been the top-scoring Spaniard in La Liga for three of the last four campaigns. Earlier, Unai Emery earned his first win as Villarreal coach after his side came from behind to beat Eibar 2-1 at home. Elsewhere, Getafe beat Osasuna 1-0 with a second-half strike from Jaime Mata to get off to a winning start after missing the first round of matches.

Celta were hovering one point above the relegation zone before kick off but the win took them up to 16th on 30 points.

Villarreal, who snapped a run of three straight defeats, climbed to eighth place with 41 points from 28 matches while Celta have 26 points and are in danger of slipping into the bottom three.

Celta said Smolov had asked permission to return home for personal reasons but they could not grant it as La Liga did not authorise his request.

The draw ended a five-game winning streak in the league for the leaders and left them on 53 points after 24 games, one ahead of second-placed Barcelona.

Karim Benzema looked to have fired Madrid to a second straight win after last week`s confidence-boosting 3-1 victory at Celta Vigo when he scored in the 82nd minute with a splendid piece of skill.

Bale created Madrid`s opening goal, which was scored by Karim Benzema, with a superb change of pace down the left wing and was a constant threat to Celta while he also contributed to Madrid`s defensive work.

Karim Benzema put Madrid ahead in the 12th minute after a superb piece of wing play from Gareth Bale, who had earned a surprise starting berth due to injury to Eden Hazard after a close-season period of uncertainty over his future.

Celta`s captain and talisman Iago Aspas then sealed the win by converting from the penalty spot after another VAR review ruled that Barca`s Samuel Umtiti had handled the ball.

Escriba was the assistant coach at Getafe, Valencia, Benfica and Atletico Madrid, later becoming head coach at Elche who he led to the top flight in his first season in charge. 

The unlikely draw took Sevilla to 37 points in the standings, two points ahead of fifth-placed Getafe who beat Celta Vigo 3-1 on Saturday.

Celta Vigo striker Iago Aspas scored a brace on Saturday to beat Huesca 2-0 in La Liga, giving his side its first win under new coach Miguel Cardoso.

Solari would not reveal whether he has been given any indication of what decision president Florentino Perez will take in the next 24 hours. 

Lionel Messi was thrown on as a substitute but 10-man Barcelona were relieved to escape with a draw as Celta Vigo came within a whisker of inflicting the Catalans' first league defeat of the season on Tuesday.

Lionel Messi scored twice as King's Cup holders Barcelona moved comfortably into the quarter-finals by thrashing Celta Vigo 5-0 at the Nou Camp in their last 16 second leg game on Thursday.

Barca hit the woodwork twice, Sergio Busquets crashing a shot against the bar and Sergio Roberto striking the post in stoppage time while Turkish international Emre Mor went close to grabbing a winner for Celta.

The ties will be played over two legs in early January.

Barca still lead the standings with 36 points but second-placed Valencia can cut their deficit on the leaders down to two if they beat Getafe on Sunday.

A Marco Asensio-inspired Real Madrid crushed Eibar 3-0 to close the gap on La Liga leaders Barcelona to five points on Sunday, with Karim Benzema starting on the bench.

Ronaldo was starting his first La Liga game away from home for nearly two months as in contrast to recent weeks, Zinedine Zidane didn`t rotate his starting XI.