Deportivo La Coruna 3-1 Tenerife: Guardado Inspires Galicians To Comeback Win

Deportivo La Crouna were stunned after going behind to a Juanlu strike on 17 minutes but Juan Rodriguez, Andres Guardado and Diego Colotto all found the net to give the home side a comfortable victory in the end.

Depor underlined their intentions from the opening whistle as they went on the attack early on in search of the lead in front of a barely half-full Riazor.

But despite the pressure, Sergio Aragonenses hardly had a touch of the ball in the Tenerife goal. And the Galicians were quickly punished for their wasted possession as the visitors took a surprise lead on 17 minutes when Juanlu ran onto Pablo Sicilia’s clever through pass from the right and drilled in a low cross-shot past a sprawling Dani Aranzubia.

Despite going behind, Depor still failed to create any urgency or opportunities upfront  and it was the Canary Islanders who looked the more dangerous side. But on 32 minutes, Depor finally found their breakthrough to draw level.

A free kick on the left channel was poorly cleared by Tenerife’s defense and Andres Guardado whipped a delightful cross back into the box and Juan Rodriguez simply could not miss with a bullet header from three yards out.

With the game all square, the hosts started to look more comfortable on the ball and confident in attack and sensing the need for a playmaker to create more openings, coach Miguel Angel Lotina sent in Juan Valeron for striker Rodolfo Bodipo, much to the delight of the home fans.

But slack defending allowed El Tete a golden opportunity to regain the lead five minutes before the break. Nino latched on to a long ball out of defence and raced into the box, but his sliding shot was palmed away miraculously by Aranzubia.

Tenerife came back out looking more adventurous in the start of the second half. Nino blazed a wild volley well over, before Alfaro was just beaten by Aranzubia to a looping diagonal ball from Juanlu.  

But in a reverse of the first half, Depor sensationally took the lead on 55 minutes against the run of play. Valeron slipped in a superb through ball to Adrian, who laid it off for Guardado on the edge of the box and the Mexican let fly with a blistering first time effort which arrowed straight into Aragonenses’ bottom left corner.

Five minutes later, Alfaro almost restored parity after a lovely passing build-up by Tenerife, but the striker just headed wide from Juanlu’s cross. And moments after that, Richi fired in an audacious looping volley on the edge of the box which just sailed over.

At the other end, Guardado almost scored from a spectacular solo effort when he charged forward half the length of the pitch and jinked past two defenders, but his final shot was deflected out. But from the resulting corner, Diego Colotto made it 3-1 when he rifled in a low shot on the edge of the box after Tenerife again failed to clear a set-piece.

Guardado was withdrawn to a standing ovation from the Riazor faithful with ten minutes to go, as Tenerife continued to push forward in the hopes of salvaging the game. The closest that they came to another goal was Richi’s glancing header three minutes from time, which bobbled agonizingly wide.

That was how the game ended as Deportivo bagged a precious victory to stay well in the hunt for European football.

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