Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, after drawing their last matches, ensured that they would be no more hiccups as they cruised to thumping victories. Real Madrid brushed aside Rayo Vallecano while FC Barcelona steamrolled Atletico Madrid to move up the table and are now placed second ahead of Real Madrid and Valencia.
Valencia could have gone ahead of Barcelona and perhaps top of the table as well but Sevilla’s Kanoute ensured that Valencia would no more remain unbeaten this season. It was an obnoxiously dull match that grabbed headlines more for its three red cards than the stand-out goal by Kanoute.
Athletic Bilbao and Villarreal went head-head in a much anticipated clash with both walking away with a point from La Catedral. Biesla’s looked decent and were much better throughout the match while Villarreal were lucky when the ball from a deflected cross fell at Nilmar’s feet for him to tap in. Villarreal don’t look the same team they were last season – technical and hardworking with imagination- and they seem to be losing too many points. Currently, they don’t look like a team which can fight for the CL spot.
Sporting, languishing at the bottom, could have earned their first victory but could not latch onto their chances and ended up drawing instead against Racing. Osasuna and Granada also played out a draw with Zaragoza and Malaga also sharing the spoils in a goalless draw.
Michael Laudrup’s Mallorca took the lead and let Real Sociedad come to them as they held on to their lead to pick up all three points at the Iberostar stadium.
Levante managed to pull another trick from up their sleeve as they beat nine-man Espanyol in an entertaining match in Valencia. Levante are now unbeaten, third in the standings ahead of the likes of Real Madrid, Valencia and Atletico. Speechless.
Player of the week
“You don’t describe Leo Messi,” Pep Guardiola said, “you watch him.” If Pep also cant describe him, we will not attempt to either.
Red cards and Referees
The week will be remembered for the number of red cards dished out. Sevilla v Valencia saw three and Levante v Espanyol saw two. Real Madrid’s Angel Di maria and Bilbao’s Ekiza also received marching orders.
The linesman also added to the controversy this week as Hector Poldiga of Zaragoza was denied a goal citing offside, when it was clearly onside and could have been the winning goal against their better fancied opponents, Malaga.
Villain of the week
Espanyol already had a player sent off in the 57th minute and were chasing the match hoping to nullify the two goal lead Levante had secured. Instead of keeping a cool head in such circumstances, Pandiani decided to put his head to use literally as he headbutted a Levante player resulting in a sending off and giving Espanyol no chance in the match with ten minutes to go.
Goal of the week
Lionel Messi took a throw in, played a neat one-two, showed the ball to a defender and took it away in a touch, then effortlessly strolled forward as two defenders waited to close him, suddenly charged towards them, played a dummy so good that both the defenders were rendered useless by that single move and as another defender charged towards him and the goal keeper tried to cover the near post, Messi got bored and decided to put Atletico’s defense out of their misery by curling the ball into the net.
He scored a hat trick and the other two goals were not bad either.
Raphael Varane’s audacious heel flick off a Mesut Ozil corner deserves a special mention. As does, Cristiano Ronaldo’s brilliant penalty that rocketed into the top corner. Perfect.
Blunder of the week
The match had just kicked off and Lass Diarra voluntarily decided to show case his defensive abilities by playing a pass to Michu in a dangerous position and attempting to retrieve it back and earn the adulation of the crowd. It backfired as Casillas fumbled to collect the long shot and Michu tapped the ball in to shock the home crowd.
But Lass did help the team by making Mourinho realize his mistake and prompting him to replace the Frenchman with Mesut Ozil before the half hour mark. All’s well that ends well. What say, Lass?
Win or loss, Betis are on top
Real Betis are perfect in their campaign so far and with Valencia slipping, they don’t even need to win their match against Getafe. If they win, they will open a four point gap over arguably the greatest team in football history, at least for the time being; an achievement that deserves praise of the highest order. Pepe Mel looks to be doing a better job than Luis Garcia with Levante last year.
Team of the week
Weekend results
Mallorca 2-1 Real Sociedad
Levante 3-1 Espanyol
Granada 1-1 Osasuna
Sporting Gijon 0-0 Racing Santander
Real Zaragoza 0-0 Málaga
Athletic Bilbao 1-1 Villarreal
Sevilla FC 1-0 Valencia
Real Madrid 6-2 Rayo Vallecano
Barcelona 5-0 Atlético Madrid
Race for the Pichichi
Lionel Messi – 8
Cristiano Ronaldo – 7
Radamel Falcao – 5
Soldado – 5
League Standings
1. Real Betis* – 12 points
2. FC Barcelona – 11
3. Levante – 11
4. Sevilla – 11
5. Real Madrid – 10
6. Málaga CF – 10
7. Valencia CF – 10
8. Atlético Madrid – 7
*have a match in hand