Las Palmas came away with all three points after a narrow 1-0 win against Deportivo Alavés, ending a run of six H2H meetings without victory for Los Amarillos, who have now lost just once in their last five La Liga games (W3, D1).
Both sides came into this matchup with identical form in their last five games, with three wins, one draw and a loss each across all competitions but visiting Las Palmas were sitting five points ahead of their hosts.
Despite the five-point gap, it was the home side who started off brighter and Luis García’s men dominated throughout the first half.
The early dominance should have seen Alavés open the scoring in the sixth minute after Javi López was played in down the left flank and after the fullback squared the ball across the face of goal for Samu Omorodion, all the striker had to do was tap it into an empty net but somehow, he managed to drag his effort wide.
A half of missed opportunities was the theme for Alavés, and they were duly punished around the half-hour mark as Kirian Rodríguez collected the ball just outside of the box, took a touch and then curled a pinpoint effort into the bottom corner, giving Las Palmas the lead against the run of play.
The home side should have gone into the HT break level as Samu once again was presented with a glorious opportunity after being played through on goal by lanis Hagi but yet again, the striker didn’t take his chance, this time seeing his effort saved by the knee of Álvaro Valles.
Alavés continued to dominate after the restart and Samu was finally celebrating after finding the back of the net less than 10 minutes into the second period. The striker did well on the stretch to poke home from Andoni Goroabel’s ball into the box but after Samu did his job, he was instead denied his fifth league goal of the season by a narrow offside call.
Los Blanquiazules continued to threaten and once again were celebrating in the 73rd minute and again, Samu was the man on the end of a cross into the box as he superbly guided a powerful header into the back of the net from just inside the box.
However, for the second time, the goal was chalked off for a marginal offside. The home side continued to huff and puff but in the end, Las Palmas held on for a victory that consolidates their position in the top half of the table.
