Alaves thrash shorthanded Vallecano 5-1

Alaves on Saturday routed a 10-man Rayo Vallecano 5-1 in La Liga action to extend its winning streak to three matches.

Alaves' Spanish full back Ximo Navarro opened the scoring just seven minutes into the game, while Spanish forward Raul de Tomas drew Rayo Vallecano level at the half-an-hour mark, reports Efe news.

Four minutes later, however, Alaves regained the lead for good as Spanish winger Ibai Gomez notched the first of two goals he scored in the game.

Just one minute later, Senegalese defender Abdoulaye Ba was shown a direct red card for elbowing Argentine forward Jonathan Calleri, what proved to be a decisive point.

Calleri himself scored the third goal in the 56th minute, while Gomez completed his brace 21 minutes later.

Three minutes into the second-half stoppage time, Jorge Franco Alviz, known as Burgui, sealed Alaves' third consecutive La Liga win.

Having lost to Barcelona and played to a 0-0 draw against Real Betis in the first two Matchdays, Alaves prevailed over Espanyol and Valladolid in the previous two games.

--IANS

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