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Week 18 passed in Spain largely with talk of Week 19: Atletico Madrid vs. Barcelona.
Fortunately for the two clubs leading the way in La Liga, they were able to keep themselves focused on the task in hand and not let their minds slip—as were third placed Real Madrid, just about.
Elsewhere there was a Basque derby, another a win for the in-form side in Seville, a winning start for Pizzi at Valencia and a lot of clean sheets up and down the country.
Here are the talking points from the latest round of matches in the Primera Division.
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Alexis weighs in to Tata’a attacking dilemma
Gerardo Martino has a problem on his hands, although this one, unlike the constant media scrutiny he’s under, is one he may like more.
This past weekend Alexis Sanchez became the latest forward to step up to the mark in Lionel Messi’s absence. The Chilean scored a hat-trick—including a fancy free kick—as Barcelona beat Elche 4-0 at Camp Nou. He is now Barcelona’s topscorer in La Liga this season with 11 goals.
Meanwhile Pedro scored the other goal, taking him to 15 for the season following his treble away at Getafe last time out—surpassing Messi’s injury-hit total of 14.
Then there’s Neymar. Prior to finding himself on the bench against Elche, the Brazilian had been in fine scoring form as he helped himself to three against Celtic and two more against Villarreal.
But Messi remains Messi and with Atletico Madrid up next week—who kept pace with Barca at the top with a 1-0 win over Malaga—Martino has some tough decisions to make about who will fill his attacking roles at the Vicente Calderon.
Charles lets Madrid off
Real Madrid kept themselves within five points of the top two by beating Celta Vigo 3-0 at the Bernabeu on Monday night—it wasn’t as easy as it sounds though.
With the score locked at 0-0 for over an hour, Celta’s striker Charles was guilty of missing two chances when put through one on one. Overall the visitors created nine shooting chances, but only one managed to hit the target.
“How do you need to improve?”, Luis Enrique, Celta’s managers, was asked in the press conference after the game. “You see the big rectangle thing? We need to put the round thing in that.”
Luckily for Madrid their specialists at putting the ball in the big rectangle thing came through in the end. Karim Benzema opened the scoring after good work by substitute Jese Rodriguez and Cristiano Ronaldo added a late brace. Of course he did.
Sociedad rule in the Basque Country
Perhaps the most eagerly anticipated game of 2014’s opening round of fixtures was the Basque derby at Anoeta between Real Sociedad and Athletic Club Bilbao.
Coming into the game both teams had been impressive form, allowing Athletic to elevate themselves into the Champions League places and la Real to lift themselves from the bottom half, following a disappointing start to the campaign, into fifth position.
What followed was actually a fairly sloppy game and, given that these are two sides who like to play football, it was surprising to see both teams pass completion under 80 per cent.
Although that’s unlikely to bother Sociedad given they won on the stat that mattered: goals scored.
And they always were likely to win on that count given they’re the Basque side with the goal scorer at the moment: Antoine Griezmann.
The Frenchman scored his 12th goal of the season—bettered only by Cristiano Ronaldo and Diego Costa—and Ruben Pardo the other as Real Sociedad won 2-0 to cut the gap on their rivals to just a solitary point.
Sevilla sneaking up the table
Following summer sales, Sevilla fans were understandably cautious of what to expect this season under Unai Emery.
On paper they appeared to have bought well, but what good was that after they opened the season without a win in their first five league games?
They’ve since lost two of their last 13 matches, ended a one year wait for an away win and are now in sixth position, unbeaten in their last six matches after beating Getafe 3-0 at the weekend.
At the heart of their good form is their Colombian striker Carlos Bacca. The 27-year-old has scored nine goals in those 13 matches, including one more against Getafe—he also set up the other two goals in the win.
Alvaro who?
No Goals Galore until the last match
Fans of the Goals Galore style- bet which has been a big hit in recent years won’t have been fans of La Liga this weekend.
Goals Galore works on the basis of both teams needing to score within 90 minutes for your bet to win: For the first nine games in Spain this weekend no one match saw both teams score.
There was one 0-0 draw—between bottom club Real Betis and Real Valladolid—while every other match saw one club manage to pick up three points and keep a clean sheet. Overall 10 teams kept clean sheets in week 18.
Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, Rayo Vallecano and Villarreal laid into that record in the last game of the jornada on Monday night.
Villarreal scored five, Ikechukwu Uche scored an impressive hat-trick and Rayo’s threat of relegation was deepened once again as they lost 5-2.
Other results: Valencia 2-0 Levante, Osasuna 1-0 Espanyol, Almeria 3-0 Granada
