Golden Silva as on-loan striker hits hat-trick on Sevilla debut

Madrid (AFP) – Portuguese striker Andre Silva marked his La Liga debut with a hat-trick as Sevilla romped to a 4-1 win at Rayo Vallecano on Sunday, surpassing his total of goals scored for AC Milan in the whole of last season’s Serie A.

Silva had managed just two goals for the Serie A giants and was loaned out to Sevilla this summer.

Franco “Mudo” Vazquez opened the scoring with a backheel in the 15th minute before Silva bagged his first just after the half hour mark.

The 22-year-old added his second in first-half stoppage time after a corner and completed his hat-trick 10 minutes from time.

However, he endured a nervous wait before he could celebrate, requiring the VAR to overturn an offside decision which had ruled out Silva’s effort.

It was the first time in La Liga history that the VAR had made such an intervention.

The system was called upon again in the last minute when Adrian Embarba converted a penalty for Rayo after the referee had initially whistled for a free-kick outside the box.

Keylor Navas held on to his place as Real Madrid’s starting goalkeeper despite the arrival of Thibaut Courtois as the European champions kicked off their La Liga campaign at home to Getafe.

Costa Rica international Navas has been first choice since 2015 but had been expected to make way for Courtois, a recent 35-million-euro recruit from Chelsea who was voted best goalkeeper at this summer’s World Cup.

Julen Lopetegui, who has replaced Zinedine Zidane as coach at the Santiago-Bernabeu, also selected Nacho at the heart of the defence rather than French World Cup winner Raphael Varane.

Real, playing their first La Liga game since the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo to Juventus, go into Sunday’s game on the back of a 4-2 defeat to Atletico Madrid in the UEFA Supercup in midweek.