BARCELONA, Spain — Rafa Mir scored his second consecutive brace to lead Huesca to a 3-1 win over Elche, helping to lift his side out of the Spanish league relegation zone on Friday.
Huesca, which two rounds ago had been in last place, rose to 16th, while Elche fell into the bottom three spots slotted for the drop.
Mir, who is playing on loan from Wolverhampton, also scored twice in a 2-0 win over Levante last round. He has 12 goals in the league for the modest Huesca from northeastern Spain.
The forward put Huesca in front three minutes into the match after he jumped over an Elche defender to head down a cross.
Elche levelled on the very next attack when Huesca’s Denis Vavro turned a pass by Antonio Barragán into his own net.
But Sandro Ramírez restored the lead on the half-hour mark with a shot that Elche goalkeeper Edgar Badia could have done more to keep out. Sandro intercepted a pass, cut back, and unleashed a shot that Badia let glance off his gloves and into the net.
Mir capped the hosts’ victory with three minutes to play from the penalty spot after Johan Mojica used his arm to block a pass in the area.
“We fought like lions and got a very important win,” Mir said. “It’s nice to see us out of the drop zone after suffering so much this season. We are 11 extremely hard workers and we are all in this together. Now we have something we can celebrate.”
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