Valencia won 2 goals to 1 on the ground of Sevilla FC, Friday evening at the start of the 2023-24 season of the Spanish Championship, inaugurated a little earlier by the victory of Rayo Vallecano on the lawn of Almeria ( 2-0).
Valencia opened the scoring in the 60th minute through Guinean defender Mouctar Diakhaby, whose recovery from the left after receiving a good job from Portuguese Andre Almeida deceived Bounou, the Moroccan goalkeeper from Seville (60th). Sevilla equalized through Morocco’s Youssef En-Nesyri in the 70th minute, with a header at the far post from a cross from Suso, but Valencia scored the winning goal in the 89th through Javi Gerra, flat-footed, served by Hugo Duro. Sevilla had been playing with ten since the 81st minute and the exclusion of Frenchman Loïc Badé for a shirt pulling.
FC Barcelona, defending champion, starts on Sunday (9:30 p.m.) at Getafe, Real Madrid on Saturday at Athletic in Bilbao, while Atlético Madrid receives Granada on Monday (9:30 p.m.) at the end of the day.