Espanyol beat Las Palmas 4-3 in La Liga

Espanyol defeated Las Palmas 4-3 in an exciting start to the 27th round of the La Liga season here.

The hosts took a 1-0 lead just 58 seconds into the match on Friday with David Lopez's header off a cross from Jurado at the Cornella-El Prat stadium.

Conceding the early goal forced the visitors to make a drastic adjustment to their tactics against a confident Espanyol side who dominated possession for long stretches.

As the half wore on, the home side became content to let Las Palmas have more of the ball while waiting for a chance on the counterattack.

The opening materialised in the 30th minute in the form of a two-on-one in front of the Las Palmas net, but Gerard Moreno's poor effort came to nothing.

Within a minute, Mauricio Lemos dodged Espanyol goalkeeper Diego Lopez with a shot from 25 meters (35 yards) to equalise for Las Palmas.

Espanyol returned to the attack and regained the advantage in first-half stoppage time, when Moreno made up for his earlier miss.

After the restart, the home side pressed hard for a third goal only to concede one instead, as Lemos got his second of the night to bring the teams level at 2-2 in the 49th minute.

The hosts came charging back and Las Palmas keeper Raul Lizoain brought down Caicedo in the area, drawing a penalty. Pablo Piatti converted from the spot to put Espanyol up 3-2 in the 54th minute.

Las Palmas fought on, coming close in the 72nd minute before Jurado scored for Espanyol in the 76th.

Trailing by two goals, the visitors clawed back one in the 84th minute, when Mateo took a fine cross from Halilovic and put the ball in the net to bring the score to 4-3.

--IANS

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