Spain saw a reordering at the top of its domestic league. Barcelona were stopped at home by Real Mallorca, while the floodgates finally opened up for Real Madrid. Villareal continued their impressive run in the league and Valencia held on to their number one position. Getafe finally stopped the Hercules juggernaut.
Real Zaragoza and Sporting Gijon played out a keenly contested match to end up with two goals each, and a point apiece. Real Sociedad recorded their second win against Espanyol. Almeria and Malaga also played out a 1-1 draw, with Kalu Uche cancelling out Quincy Owusu-Abeyie’s strike. Sevilla came back strongly after a ‘surprise’ defeat against Hercules. They walloped past Atletico Madrid, who haven’t started the new season as they would have liked to.
Punch!-line Of The Weekend
Who else, but Real Madrid? Jose Mourinho claims that his side is still under construction, but Madrid ended their goal drought in style. Unfortunately for Deportivo, they had to be the victim of Real Madrid’s first onslaught of the 2010-11 season. Los Blancos’ record signing Cristiano Ronaldo started and ended the goal fest with a brace. Apart from the mercurial Portuguese, Ozil, Di Maria & Higuain too recorded one goal each. Ze Castro scored a suicide goal and Juan Rodriguez got SuperDepor a consolation goal.
This result was a much-needed reminder of Madrid’s potentially devastating attack; an attack that did not yield many goals and was under constant criticism and supervision.
‘Hold’ Of The Weekend
Real Mallorca’s hard-earned draw at the Nou Camp earns them this title. In complete contrast to other seasons, Barcelona have been terrific when playing away from home and terrible when playing at home. A loss to Hercules and draw against an injury-hit Real Mallorca bears testimony to this. Lionel Messi came back to the starting eleven after a hiatus and the diminutive Argentine made his presence felt with a goal midway through the first half.
The absence of Xavi was felt as the creativity in midfield went missing. A header from 21-year-old Spanish striker Emilio Nsue brought the Els Barralets on level terms with the Catalans. Bojan hit the post in the dying moments of the match, but none of the teams could add to the scoreline. The Spaniard has not only inherited the hallowed number 9 from Ibrahimovic, but also his impossible misses. Not only did FC Barcelona drop points, but also lost Pedro for three weeks with a hamstring tear.
Clash of the ‘Giant-Killers’
Getafe is a team that plays some uncanny football. They are the undisputed ‘Giant Killers’ of Spanish football. On their day, they can defeat any team, be it FC Barcelona or Real Madrid. In the sixth round of the Spanish League, they welcomed recently promoted Hercules. The latter can boast of two sound victories against heavyweights FC Barcelona and Sevilla. This time, though, high flying Hercules was made to bite the dust. A professional display of football earned the home side all three points with goals from Parejo, Manu and Miku.
Clichés Of The Weekend
A renascent Valencia and Villareal have been playing some quality football for quite some time now. The Los Che cemented their position at the apex of the Spanish League table with some very consistent display of football. Villareal have been quite unswerving for the past five weeks as well, after their initial loss to Real Sociedad.
Valencia welcomed Athletic Bilbao and had to fight to notch up all three points. A bizarre match with only one goal in 89 minutes and two goals in the finishing moments of the match. Vicente finally made sure that the home side secured all three points. Villareal did not break sweat in thwarting a struggling Racing Santander. Goals from Nilmar and Rossi secured the Yellow Submarines the share of the spoils.
‘Big Match’ Of The Weekend
The Europa League champions and Copa Del Rey champions clashed in Jonarda Seis (Week 6). Sevilla welcomed Atletico Madrid at the Sanchez Pizjuan. Negredo, Perotti and Kanoute scored one goal each for the Sevillistas and Diego Costa could only pull one back for the visitors. A stunning display of football from the home side enabled them to secure all three points. Atletico Madrid further complicated the situation for them after losing their second match of the season.
The Stalemates…
Other than the notable draw at Nou Camp, 6 other teams were involved in logjams. Real Zaragoza and Sporting Gijon, Almeria and Malaga, Osasuna and Levante. All these teams cancelled out each other. Real Zaragoza actually scored three goals; two by Florent Sinama-Pongolle and an own goal by Ivan Obradovic. Diego Castro got the other one for Sporting Gijon.
Almeria and Malaga played out yet another draw. Quincy Owusu-Abeyie gave the visitors the lead, six minutes into the second half. The lead was cancelled out buy Kalu Uche’s strike in the final quarter of the match.
Osasuna and Levante too shared the points. Jose Antonio Camacho’s side were given the lead in the 72nd minute by their Uruguayan star Walter Pandiani. However, Spanish midfielder Sergio brought the visitors on level terms in the 79th minute.
Goal Of The Weekend
Usually, the award is given in terms of quality of the goal. However, THT salutes the impact that Emilio Nsue’s equaliser against the defending champions had made. The young Spanish striker scored just before the break to cancel out Lionel Messi’s strike. Michael Laudrup’s side finally managed a point away from home, and that too at the Nou Camp!