It was the same script as last week: With Real and Atlético drawing in their games, Barcelona seized the moment and became the new leaders of La Liga. Here’s the recap of a blaugrana-colored weekend.
La Liga winners: Matchweek 25
Hansi Flick
It wasn’t pretty, and you can argue that it involved an element of luck or questionable officiating by César Soto Grado, but the 1-0 win over a dangerous Rayo Vallecano put Barça back on top for the first time in two months. Barcelona’s German coach made a power move on his players (see the losers section) that didn’t prevent a win, and he even got in a dig at Real Madrid by calling Jude Bellingham weak for getting sent off (also see the losers section). The Spanish sports media will like this stir of the pot.
The teams from Seville
The combined score from this weekend’s games: Sevilla and Real Betis 7, Real Sociedad and Real Valladolid 0. Juanlu grabbed a brace for the team that typically wears red and white, while los verdiblancos stayed in the fight for the European places. The sherry is flowing in Andalusia.
Borja Mayoral
No sooner had the Getafe striker come into the game than he seized on a rebound and smashed it home for the game-winner in Girona. The former Real Madrid player hasn’t seen much of the pitch this season, so he’ll be happy to have that.
Vedat Muriqi
The 6-foot-4 Kosovar with the man bun struck twice for Mallorca in the early stages against Las Palmas and helped his team to a 3-1 win over the visitors from the Canary Islands. Pronounce the “q” in his name like a “ch,” if you’re wondering.
Umar Sadiq
Valencia just borrowed him from Real Sociedad, and he headed in a rebound that salvaged a draw against Villarreal. It was the big Nigerian’s first goal for his new team, and it temporarily lifted Valencia out of the relegation zone. Los ché now have seven points out of a possible nine in their last three matches.
Alexander Sørloth
The Norwegian striker saved a draw for Atlético Madrid by simply winning a long ball late on and putting it past Vicente Guaita. That’s what Atleti got him for.
La Liga losers: Matchweek 25
Jude Bellingham
Whether he said “F--- off” or “F--- you” to referee José Luis Munuera, he got himself sent off in the first half with Real Madrid leading Osasuna. Just his luck that the ref understood that much English, but he gave the home team a route back into the game. Osasuna took it, with Ante Budimir converting a penalty in the second half that led to a draw.
Pablo Barrios
Not to be outdone by Bellingham, the Atlético midfielder saw red in the seventh minute of his team’s 1-1 draw with Celta de Vigo. Okay, hard fouls are just the way at Atlético, and bookings are an occupational hazard that the team has made quite clear it’s willing to live with. Still, why give the referee that decision to make that early in the game, especially when los rojiblancos already knew the result of the Real Madrid match? They had a chance to take over the lead of La Liga, and instead Barrios put the team on the back foot almost immediately. Now there’s talk of Atlético signing Paul Pogba. The mind reels at the possibility.
Jules Koundé and Ansu Fati
The Barcelona defender was benched for the Rayo game for chronic tardiness to team meetings, even though his coach claimed it was “a technical decision,” whatever that means. His team won with Héctor Fort starting in the Frenchman’s place. Meanwhile, the Guinea-born attacker may wear the No. 10 jersey, but he appears to be a distant sixth among Barcelona’s forward options behind Róbert Lewandowski, Lamine Yamal, Raphinha, Ferrán Torres, and Dani Olmo. All those other players saw the pitch against Rayo, while Fati remained rooted to the bench. Clearly being a Barcelona player means something to the youngster, but if this doesn’t change, he may wish he’d taken up the transfer-window offer from one of the Turkish League teams that wanted him.
Unai Simón
Spain’s No. 1 goalkeeper dithered too long with the ball at his feet, and Espanyol’s Roberto slide-tackled it into the net to give his team a precious draw against Athletic Bilbao, who are chasing Champions League play for next season.
Racist Espanyol fans
The match against Bilbao had to be stopped because fans of the Barcelona-based club were chanting racist slurs against Athletic’s Maroan Sannadi, who is of Moroccan descent. They later turned their ire on Sannadi’s Black teammate Iñaki Williams, who pointed out the abuse to referee Guillermo Cuadra Fernández and got him to issue a warning to the crowd. To be clear, Espanyol are not the only team whose fans have been guilty of this (Bilbao’s fans have their own history with racism), but since their fans did it this week, they get mentioned here.
Villarreal
They should view their draw to Valencia as two points thrown away, because they dominated the last 60 minutes of play and had chances to seal the victory, particularly Ayoze Pérez (Newcastle fans will remember him) skying a rebound chance over an open net.
Real Sociedad
Igor Zubeldia was red-carded in the 20th minute, but his team held out valiantly for the rest of the first half before crumbling in the second and giving up three goals to Real Betis. Then Sheraldo Becker reduced his team to nine players after the game was already settled for trying to separate Ángel Ortiz’ foot from his leg. The royal society will be short-handed going forward.
Real Valladolid
There’s nothing like a game against Valladolid to solve your team’s offensive problems. Now that an undistinguished Sevilla squad banged four goals past them, Valladolid have given up 37 more goals than they’ve scored, which is by far the worst goal differential in Spain’s top flight. They’re traveling to Bilbao next week, so that number doesn’t look to get better.
Ladislav Krejčí and Yangel Herrera
The Girona defender had his pocket picked in front of his own goal by Getafe’s Juan Iglesias, which contributed to his team’s loss at home. All his defensive teammates looked uneasy in possession of the ball, but it was the Czech’s blunder that led to the opening goal. As for his Venezuelan teammate, Herrera scored off a corner kick to give his team hope, but his red card in the 71st minute for stepping on the back Ramón Terrats’ heel was well-deserved, and Terrats will be thankful that his Achilles is still intact.
Leganés and Alavés
Last week, I said these teams needed to show some more fight. Well, they showed plenty of it in a game that featured eight yellow cards and one red. The trouble is, the result was a 3-3 draw that helped neither side. Half the goals came from the penalty spot, and Munir El-Haddadi’s header in the 88th minute salvaged a draw for the home team, which gave up the lead twice. It was great, error-strewn entertainment of the sort you’d expect from two teams battling relegation.