Valencia 5-0 Malaga: West Ham flop Simone Zaza stuns with nine-minute hat-trick to keep unbeaten run going

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Simone Zaza scored a hat-trick inside nine minutes as Valencia routed Malaga 5-0 in La Liga.

The Italy international, who experienced an ill-fated loan spell with West Ham last year, struck three times between the 54th and 63rd minutes after Santi Mina had opened the scoring for Valencia, with substitute Rodrigo adding a fifth late on.

Los Che maintained their unbeaten record, though this was their first win in four games, against a Malaga side that have opened their league campaign with five defeats from five.

Simone Zaza of Valencia celebrates scoring his team's fourth goal with team-mate Santi Mina

The Italy international scored three times in the space of nine second-half minutes

Zaza had already had one goal disallowed for offside when Mina headed home the 17th-minute opener and it remained 1-0 until the break.

Zaza's rapid hat-trick then took the game beyond Malaga and he was taken off for Rodrigo, who rounded it off with a fifth after a cheeky back-heeled pass from Goncalo Guedes to set him up.

Last season, Zaza failed to score a single goal in eight Premier League appearances for the Hammers, who cancelled his loan from Juventus prematurely to pave the way for Valencia's move.

Valencia move up to third in La Liga with nine points to show from their first five games of the season.

However, a number of teams, including Real Madrid, have the chance to move up in Wednesday's fixtures.

Santi Mina had opened the scoring for Valencia in the first half before Zaza scored his hat-trick

Zaza (C) scores the first of his three goals en route to sealing a win for Valencia in La Liga