LaLiga is back, and within one match it handed us the exact argument we spent all last season having.
Sevilla beat Rayo Vallecano 2-1 at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán on Saturday, and they did it the hard way: down a man, deep into stoppage time, from the penalty spot. Peque Fernández buried it in the 97th minute to finish a comeback that had no business landing. Sevilla went behind early, clawed level, lost a player, and still found a way to win.
Start with the hole they dug. Four minutes in, debutant Arouna Sangante coughed up the ball on the edge of his own box, Álvaro García pounced, and he slotted past Odysseas Vlachodimos before the crowd had settled into their seats. That's about the worst way to open a new season, and for a while it looked like the kind of afternoon that exposes a nervy team.
Sevilla got a lifeline instead. A VAR review handed the hosts a penalty, and Jon Guridi put it away calmly in the 52nd to make it 1-1. Then things turned chaotic: Kike Salas was sent off with a straight red in the 88th for a hard foul on Jorge de Frutos, and Sevilla had to see out the finish with ten men.
The winner is where the mood splits. After another long VAR check, Sevilla got a second penalty in the 97th, with the foul flagged as Florian Lejeune tripping Robbie Ure inside the area, and Peque did the rest. Spanish coverage has already framed the opener as the new season kicking off with the same officiating row that closed the last one. That's a fair complaint, and Rayo have every right to feel hard done by twice over.
Still, you can argue the calls all night and still admire what Sevilla showed. A team that concedes a soft goal, goes down to ten men, and still has the composure to win it from the spot in the seventh minute of added time has a spine. Sevilla found theirs when it mattered.
One match tells you nothing about a table, but this one made Rayo's rotten luck impossible to miss. They played the better opening hour, they led, and they walked away with nothing because the whistle went against them at the death. That stings more than any blowout.
It's one match, Jornada 1. Don't crown anyone yet. But if you're Sevilla, you take three points earned under maximum stress over a comfortable win every time. And if you're LaLiga, brace for the arguments, because they clearly aren't going anywhere.
