Alavés wait 73 minutes, then score three in seventeen against Getafe

For 72 minutes this was the sort of season opener that ends 0-0 and gets forgotten by Tuesday. Alavés kept shooting — 18 times in all — and Getafe kept getting bodies in the way. Possession was almost even. Nothing was.

Then Nahuel Tenaglia scored on 73 minutes, and the resistance collapsed.

Two goals in stoppage time

Mariano made it 2-0 at 90+1'. Mikel Rodríguez made it 3-0 three minutes later. A game that had produced one goal in 89 minutes produced two more before the referee could blow.

The underlying numbers had been pointing this way all afternoon: 1.83 expected goals for Alavés against 0.24 for Getafe, 18 shots to six, eight on target to two. Getafe's goalkeeper made five saves. He could not make an eighth.

Match facts

• 73' — Nahuel Tenaglia (Alavés)
• 90+1' — Mariano (Alavés)
• 90+4' — Mikel Rodríguez (Alavés)

Two different trajectories

That opening win turned into a genuinely promising start. Alavés drew 1-1 at Rayo Vallecano five days later, beat Villarreal 1-0 at home on matchday 3 and put five past Osasuna in a 5-2 win on matchday 4. The run cooled after that — back-to-back defeats, 2-1 away at Racing Santander and 0-1 at home to Valencia — before a goalless draw at Athletic Club on matchday 7. Seven matches in, Alavés sit sixth in LaLiga with 11 points from three wins, two draws and two defeats.

Getafe's response was slower to arrive. They beat newly promoted Racing Santander 1-0 at home on matchday 2 for their first points of the season, then lost 0-1 away at Osasuna and drew 1-1 at home with Deportivo. A 0-1 defeat at Real Betis followed before Getafe finally banked a second win, 1-0 at home over Málaga, on matchday 7. With six matches played — one fewer than most of the division — they sit 13th on seven points, two wins, one draw and three losses.

The gap between the two shows up in the underlying numbers, not just the table. Getafe have scored three league goals all season, the joint-lowest tally in LaLiga alongside bottom-placed Málaga. Alavés, meanwhile, have conceded only six — level with Athletic Club and Getafe themselves at the other end of the pitch, and behind only Celta Vigo's five as the division's tightest defence.

Where that leaves both sides

Sixth place keeps Alavés in the Europa League zone, just two points behind fifth-placed Sevilla and the Champions League places above them. Getafe's seven points, by contrast, sit only two clear of the relegation zone — Elche occupy 18th on five points, with Valencia and Málaga below them. Alavés have built a cushion in six weeks; Getafe are still playing with the drop zone in sight.

Mendizorroza was the difference. Alavés won each of their first three home league matches of the season — this one, then 1-0 over Villarreal on matchday 3 and 5-2 over Osasuna on matchday 4 — before Valencia ended that unbeaten home run with a 1-0 win there on matchday 6.

The immediate aftermath

Alavés went to Vallecas five days later and came away with a 1-1 draw at Rayo Vallecano, which makes it four points from their first two matches. Getafe host newly promoted Racing Santander on Sunday 23 August, still looking for a first point and a first goal of the season.