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Rayo Vallecano and Real Oviedo (20th March, 2017)

Four.

There were four ex-Rayistas in the Oviedo squad. Néstor Susaeta, who oversaw Rayo's return to La Liga after eight years; David Fernández, Vallekas born-and-bred, who became a legend with Real Oviedo by guiding them to the Segunda, and did the same with Guadalajara for the first time in their history; Michu, who was La Liga's highest scoring midfielder and would later on become the bargain of the Premier League, costing Swansea £2 million; and Jonathan Pereira, who scored the goal to secure Villarreal's swift return to La Liga.

All four of them played against Rayo yesterday. And none of them turned up.

Rayo Vallecano played against a team and won convincingly - a sentence that has not been said for a long, long time.

The pairing of Trashorras and Fran Beltrán was a revelation. Fran was hustling and bustling while Trashorras kept the game ticking. Lass terrorized the right flank, while Álex Moreno terrorized the left. Embarba kept popping into space, and Javi Guerra was dangerously unmarked all night.

But once again the hero was Patrick Ebert, who hit the post, scored the penalty, and was a menace the entire time.

Rayo deservedly won, and are just one point away from salvation. But things are not so easy. Rayo were lucky not to be 2-1 or even 2-2. This defense looks shaky and the fact that the Amaya-Dorado pairing lacks pace is all too well known.

All things considered, it was nice to see Rayo camp in Oviedo's half and going forward they were genuinely very good.

Also, on that note, here is a list of players who've played for Real Oviedo as well as for Rayo Vallecano (that I could find):
  1. Viktor Onopko
  2. Iñigo Idiakez
  3. Jonathan Pereira Rodríguez
  4. Rayco García Dauta
  5. Pablo Díaz Vázquez
  6. Michu
  7. Néstor Susaeta
  8. Rubén Reyes
  9. Juanma Marrero
  10. Eugenio "Geni" Suárez Santos
  11. Pedro Baquero
  12. Iván Iglesias
  13. Iván Ania
  14. Borja Gómez Pérez
  15. David Fernández Cortázar
  16. Nené Ballina
  17. Diego Aguirre Parra
  18. Pere Valentí Mora
  19. Francisco Javier López Bravo
  20. Clemente Iriarte
  21. Sergio Segura
  22. Eliseo Salamanca
  23. Juan Antonio Felipe
It's an impressive and diverse list, from taking Málaga from the fourth tier to the first (Francisco Javier López Bravo) to taking Guadalajara to its inaugural Segunda season (David Fernández Cortázar - yeah, I know I mentioned it before. Just......ok?) to a person who I actually talked about before (no, I've actually written an entire article about him before, it's Sergio Segura and you can read it here).

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