[Pat Murphy]

Oliveira Double Fires Zaragoza Out Of The Drop Zone

Real Zaragoza 3-0 Recreativo

Two goals from Ricardo Oliveira, along with another from Sergio Garcia took Zaragoza to a comfortable 3-0 victory over Recreativo at La Romareda on Saturday in a match that ended with nine men versus ten, but the result of which moves Zaragoza out of the bottom three at the expense of their opponents.

Zaragoza were clearly fired up to go for all three points and made an excellent start with goals from Sergio Garcia and Ricardo Oliveira giving them a two goal advantage by the mid-way point of the first half.

Recreativo were reduced to ten men when Marco Ruben was dismissed for two yellow cards on the stroke of half time, effectively killing their hopes of a second half comeback, and so it proved as Oliveira added his second of the match to secure a crucial victory for Zaragoza, despite the late dismissals of Vicente Pascual and Roberto Ayala.

Manolo Villanova's side burst out of the blocks and took the lead in the second minute of play when Oliveira crossed for Garcia to finish past Stefano Sorrentino from close-range.

They continued to attack with intensity and dominated the opening twenty minutes, with Sergio Fernandez and Oliveira both going close, while the returning Aimar continually caused problems for the Recreativo back-line.

Recre finally got a decent effort on goal through Florent Sinama-Pongolle, but went two down less than half a minute later when Oliveira broke free of Iago Bouzon and finished calmly into the bottom corner of the net.

Ruben and Sinama-Pongolle both had attempts at goal that failed to trouble Cesar in the Zaragoza goal, while at the other end Oliveira's touch deserted him after a neat interchange with Aimar had put him through on goal

It had been a terrible first half for Recre and it got even worse inside the final five minutes when Ruben was sent off for two bookable offences after fouls on Aimar and Javier Paredes in the space of a couple of minutes.

Zaragoza began the second half in nervous fashion, perhaps sensing that a vital victory was just forty-five minutes away, and struggled to keep hold of the ball or build any meaningful attacks in the opening exchanges.

Aimar was substituted to a standing ovation ten minutes into the half – Villanova presumably wishing to keep him wrapped in cotton wool for next weekend – while Recre threatened as Carlos Martins fired just off-target from the edge of the area.

The visitors man disadvantage started to show as the half worn on as they ran out of steam, although Zaragoza were lacking a creative edge in Aimar's absence and were unable to ease the pressure by taking control of the ball.

Oliveira missed a great opportunity to truly kill off the game when he shot wide when through one-on-one with Sorrentino, but made amends three minutes later, heading home a cross from the right to give Zaragoza an unassailable advantage.

It was not all good news for the home team, however, as young midfielder Pascual and experienced defender Ayala were both dismissed in the closing minutes after picking up their second yellow cards, but in the end the result was the most important thing and that went squarely in Zaragoza's favour.

Nick Dorrington - Goal.com

Goal.com - La Liga - Oliveira Double Fires Zaragoza Out Of The Drop Zone


Big win for Zara. Which pulls them up to 17th, equal on points with Recre and 2 points behind Valencia.