To compliment the excellent Premier League Round-Up on footballmundial.co.uk comes La Liga World: a look at all the wonderful (and sometimes bizarre) recent happenings over in Spain.
Big news this week is that Real Madrid went (briefly) 6-points clear of Barcelona at the summit of La Liga; something that has never happened under Jose Mourinho. It is also a lead that the Portuguese has never surrendered, on his way to winning his previous other title’s in Italy, England and Portugal.
It was perhaps no surprise that Real collected their latest 3-points during the Madrid derby; a fixture that Atletico haven’t won since 1999. Indeed, it is a statistic not lost on the los blancos faithful who produced a banner before the match, stating: ‘Wanted. Worthy rival for a decent derby’
What was a surprise is that Atleti had the actual cheek to take the lead, producing a goal that Barcelona would have been proud of. A fast, intricate one-touch passing move saw Diego (who was strangely, yet effectively performing a man-marking task on Xabi Alonso) slip the ball through to Adrian, who finished deliciously. But Atletico Madrid are a team who have garnered something of a reputation for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory over the years – especially against their city rivals. Not so much as unlucky, they seem to have smashed several hundred windows whilst running through a tunnel of ladders – then probably run over a litter of black cats at the end for good measure. ‘Unlucky’ is an understatement when it comes to El Derbi madrileño. And how wrong any of us were to get a little excited at the prospect of a shock occurring at the Bernabeu. Barely 10-minutes had passed with the score at 1-0 before Atletico conceded a penalty and had their keeper sent-off. From then on it was game-over – or rather, normal derby-service was being played out. The final score finished 4-1 (with another penalty awarded to Real and another red card to Atleti) with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring his obligatory goals – this time two penalties. He also continues to look disgusted, if anybody other than himself has the sheer audacity to score for Real.
Cristiano Ronaldo was thankful for his shin-pads during the Madrid derby
Although for a spell the team from the Calderon had battled manfully – it was a little too manfully if Jose Mourinho was to be believed, who had the cheek to moan about roughhouse tactics. This, after his teams anti-football stance during last season’s el Clasico encounters. ‘Thank God for those expensive carbon-fibre shin-pads!’ he could be heard muttering. Still, that’s 13-wins on the spin, scoring 51 whilst conceding just 9 for Real Madrid. El Clasico cannot come soon enough for the men in white.
Real Madrid were served up another ‘whopper’ result by the Burger King sponsored Getafe as they produced a hit-and-run style win at home versus Barcelona. Once again, the Catalan giants showed they were suspect from set-pieces, especially with the absence of Puyol, conceding from a corner in the 67-minute; Valera heading in. The worrying signs continue for Barca, as they continue to dominate but seem to lose concentration – something which many are attaching to the lack of Puyol’s presence in the team, as the captain never lets the commitment slip whilst out on the pitch. Others are questioning Guardiola’s tactics in setting his team up too narrow, and attempting to make Messi the central figure at the expense of his other stars – most notably David Villa. Still, talk of crises sounds absurd when you realise that this was Barcelona’s first defeat in all competitions since April – but La Liga, with this Barcelona and this Real Madrid, is a place where draws are the new defeats and defeats are a crises.
Madrid's other (Burger) kings upset Barcelona
The 6-point gap was reduced to 3 when Barcelona, playing on Tuesday night due to World Club Cup commitments in December, thumped Rayo Vallecano 4-0. Messi, who hit the post and had a goal ruled out for a marginal offside decision in the loss to Getafe, and David Villa ‘rediscovered’ their goalscoring touch, whilst Alexis Sanches weighed in with a two. Crises? What crises…
Back to the weekend where Valencia continued their impressive form with a 2-1 win away from home at Rayo Vallecano on Saturday. Los Che have actually earned more points on average, away from home this season. Beware Chelsea.
Malaga continue to make being ‘newly-rich’ look difficult as they laboured to a 2-1 win against Villarreal. The Arab-owned club are feeling the loss of Brazilian forward Julio Baptista with every passing week. Mallorca had a scare at home, going 2-0 up versus Racing before conceding 15-minutes from time, then going down to 10-men. The Islanders hung-on to a 2-1 win however. Someone who didn’t hang-on, was Racing boss Hector Cuper who left the club afterward.
The worst defence in La Liga only conceded one goal, a penalty at that, this weekend but it was still enough to lose as Sevilla defeated Zaragoza 1-0; Negredo was the difference, scoring the decisive spot-kick whilst being a thorn in the side of Zaragoza who are now struggling.
Back to winning ways. Levante.
Levante (remember them?) halted a three-game losing streak by thumping Sporting 4-0, whilst Osasuna won their first away game of the season, beating Espanyol 2-1. Meanwhile in Basque-country Athletic Bilbao’s impressive run of 11-unbeaten matches (in all competitions) came to an end at home, vesus Granada, who’s keeper had a cape on, defying all in a 1-0 win.
Goal of the weekend, along with funny/awkward situation of the weekend, came down in Sevilla as Real Sociadad beat Real Betis 3-2 away from home. The away side missed a penalty in the first-half through Griezmann, before a sensational second-half unfolded. On-loan Arsenal striker Carlos Vela created and scored as Sociadad took a 2-goal lead before the home side came storming back, scoring twice in the final 9-minutes. A 2-2 result look assured when in injury-time, Inigo Martinez repeated his Basque-derby guapa antics, scoring sensationally from the half-way line. No stranger to scoring from the half-way line, former Sociadad player Xabi Alonso summed up Martinez’s latest heroics best, stating: ‘Iñigo Martínez is my idol.’
Pepe Mel & Betis. Awkward.
The late 3-2 defeat rubbed further salt in the wound of Betis coach Pepe Mel who is rumoured to be up for the sack, and would already have been dismissed if it wasn’t for the fact that he is entitled to € 1.5 million pay-out. However, the coach’s entitlement only comes into effect if the club sacks him whilst Betis are outside the relegation zone…can you see where this is heading? Yes, with Betis just a single point outside the dropzone the club’s board are awaiting their own team falling into the bottom three so they can dismiss Mel at a fee that is much more affordable.
You gotta love La Liga…
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