Alaves beat Celta to go top of La Liga

Vigo (Spain), Oct 20 (IANS) Celta Vigo's unbeaten record at home in the 2018-2019 La Liga season ended with a 0-1 loss to Deportivo Alaves, who took provisional possession of first place.

Alaves have 17 points from nine matches, but Sevilla, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid and Espanyol are all within three points of the leaders with a game in hand, reports EFE news agency.

For Celta, a sixth straight match without a victory leaves them 10th in La Liga with 10 points.

The hosts managed to play their preferred possession game throughout the first half here on Friday, holding Alaves to just one shot on goal while creating several decent chances at the other end.

Sound at the back, Alaves exploited weakness in the Celta defense to take the lead in the 58th minute.

The play began with a free kick far from the Celta goal. Duarte sent the ball deep to Laguardia, who deftly redirected it into the box for Tomas Pina to score what would turn out to be the match winner.