Spearheading Elche’s attack in a must-win game, Pere Milla had an early sight of goal after latching onto a ball inside the box, but he could only fire a tame effort at Stole Dimitrievski.
After a back-and-forth tussle, the 25-minute mark brought a flashpoint, when Rayo’s Florian Lejeune leapt in two-footed on Milla and caught him on the ankle as he broke forward. Only a caution was given at first, but Mario Lopez was soon duty-bound to flash a red when a VAR monitor review showed the true vulgarity of the Frenchman’s challenge.
Elche could hardly have asked for a bigger gimme in such a dire situation and began to press with greater regularity. A jinking run and shot from Tete Morente – which was saved well by Dimitrievski – acted as an ample warning.
But he finally gave the Estadio Manuel Martinez Valero something to cheer just before half-time, when Fidel crossed to the far post, finding the head of Morente to head over the line for his third league goal of the campaign.
The hosts carried the momentum that goal created into the second half and tripled their advantage within nine minutes of the restart as Rayo collapsed.
The killer second goal came courtesy of Lucas Boye, who received a shrewd pass from Lautaro Blanco and fired calmly into the bottom-right corner.
And Fidel added to his earlier assist just a minute later, after a knockdown falling to Gerard Gumbau. He lofted the ball to the unmarked vice-captain, allowing him all the time in the world to sear in from the right wing and fire past a now-stunned Dimitrievski to give the Franjiverdes their first 3-0 lead at home in 12 months.
With Rayo looking broken, and nothing like the team that had so bravely beaten champions-elect Barcelona in midweek, it was open season on the visitors’ goal. And Gumbau turned goalscorer with a little over 20 minutes still to play, after more atrocious Rayo defending saw Josan receive the ball on that ever-weak right flank.
He squared the ball to Gumbau, who timed his run to perfection before controlling the ball with his left foot and firing home unchallenged with his right for an incredible 4-0 lead.
Much to Rayo’s relief, Elche were unable to dispense any further humiliation on them. The result keeps Elche alive in the top flight for now, but this is only the first step on a seemingly-impossible path to a perfect six-game finish, with anything less still insufficient to achieve the unthinkable.
As for Rayo, this is an off-day best consigned to the annals of history, as their clean-sheet drought reached an eighth game to all but kill their European aspirations.
