Barcelona & Real Madrid Maintaining the pace in La Liga by @zikson_b
After ten games each, the two favourites for the La Liga title are firmly in control. Both Real Madrid and Barcelona increased their lead at the top of the table with maximum points at tBarcelona & Real Madrid Maintaining the pace in La Liga by @zikson_b he weekend while Granada, Las Palmas and Levante all remained at the bottom of the table.
Athletico Madrid could only manage to get a point at Deportivo after Lucas Perez cancelled out Tiago first half strike. The draw saw Diego Simeone’s men dropped to fourth on the table and three points behind the league leaders.
Real Madrid won comfortably at home against Las Palmas despite missing some key players. Isco, Cristiano Ronaldo and Jese Rodriguez scored for the Los Blancos with Hernan Santana getting the only goal for the visitors in a 3-1 win for Real Madrid. Barcelona’s duo of Neymar and Luis Suarez gave the Catalans an important away win at Getafe. Both players have performed well in the absence of Lionel Messi and their performance against Getafe was commendable as they helped Barcelona to a 2-0 win. Real Madrid and Barcelona are top of the table with 24 points from a possible 30 with Real Madrid sitting first with a superior goal difference.
Valencia added more misery for Levante with a 3-0 win at the Mestalla. Alcacer, Feghouli and Bakkali were all on target for the Los Che thus helping the team move up to 7th on the table. The 20th Levante will now have it all to do for the rest of the season although they have six points with 19th placed Las Palmas who are better on goal difference.
The battle at the El Madrigal ended in favour of the host. Goals from Mario Gaspar and Cedric Bakambu were enough to seasl a 2-1 win for Villareal over Sevilla with Fernando Llorente scoring a consolation for the visitors fourteen minutes from time.
Celta Vigo got back to winning ways at the Estadio Aoeta where they came back twice to secure a late win against David Moyes’ Real Sociedad. Both Imanol Agirretxe of Real Sociedad and Iago Aspas of Celta Vigo scored a brace but the deciding goal came from Pablo Hernandez in the 89th minute. Real Sociedad will be disappointed with their start to the season leaving them in 16th place with Celta Vigo climbing up to 3rd.
A Diego Llorente’s own goal was all Eibar needed to overcome Rayo Vallecano in a 1-0 win at Municipa de Ipurua. Granada remain in the bottom three but the team will be pleased with their [performance at the weekend. Babin’s goal looked to have won it for Granada but Felipe Caicedo’s 90th minute strike for 10-man Espanyol ruin the day for Granada. Alen Halilovic scored the only goal as Sporting Gijon defeated Malaga 1-0 with also an impressive 3-1 away win for Athletic Bilbao at Betis. Inaki Williams was the star of the day as his brace put Bilbao ahead before Ruben Castro looked to have brought the host back into the game. Raul Garcia’s goal three minutes from time was enough to secure the win for Bilbao.
Neymar added a goal to his tally this weekend and still remain at the top of the Pichichi race with 9 goals. The Brazilian is closely followed by Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Suarez and Imanol Agirretxe on 8 goals. Nolito and Asensio joined Lora and Soldado on top of the assist chart with 4 each to their names.
Five La Liga teams will be involved in the UEFA Champions League this week with another two fighting in the UEFA Europa League. In the Champions league, Rela Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Athletico Madrid and Sevilla will be on parade. Real Madrid remain unbeaten this season in all competitions as they prepare to host Paris Saint German of France. Barcelona however is expected to have it easy when they host BATE Borisov at Camp Nou. Athletico Madrid will travel to Kazakhstan to face FC Astana with Valencia also visiting Gent while Sevilla will host Manchester City. However, in the Europa League, Villareal will travel to play Dinamo Minsk while Athletico Bilbao will host Partizan Belgrade.
