Barcelona’s win in the clásico means that they only need one more win (or three draws) to claim another title in La Liga, but there was much more action in Spain this past weekend. Never let it be said that we only cover Spain’s big two in this column.
La Liga Winners
Alexander Sørloth
He had a hat trick before the 11-minute mark of Atlético’s knockout of Real Sociedad, and he added a fourth before half an hour had gone. It was the fastest hat trick in the history of La Liga. You do that, you make this list. The big Norwegian who couldn’t find the net in two seasons for Crystal Palace now has 17 this year in La Liga to go with the 23 he scored last year for Villarreal. I won’t argue that he deserves to start over Julián Álvarez, but surely there’s a way to start both of these two big players instead of forcing one to come off the bench.
Raphinha and Kylian Mbappé
Almost as impressive as Sørloth’s four goals were the dueling hat tricks these guys came up with in the clásico. That first half was almost as breathless as Barça’s Champions League tilts against Inter Milan, but unlike the nerazzurri, Real came away just that little bit short of quality, just as they have all season.
Leganés
They jumped on Espanyol by scoring the first three goals in a momentous win for them. Then, being a team that’s fighting relegation, they almost threw it away by conceding two goals on corner kicks in the dying stages. Nevertheless, they’re one tantalizing point away from safety, with games against fellow relegation battler Las Palmas and already-relegated Real Valladolid remaining. Los pepineros’ chances of avoiding the drop are looking good.
Etta Eyong
It’s fun to be a striker when the three defenders around you don’t get within two arms’ length of you. The young Villarreal forward came on as a sub late in a goalless game at Girona and within minutes, he turned in Alfonso Pedraza’s cross with Girona’s defenders rolling out a red carpet for him. It was the Cameroonian’s first goal for Villarreal’s senior team, and it won the game.
Giorgi Mamardashvili
Look at the scoreline of Valencia’s 3-0 defeat of Getafe, and you’ll think it was a lopsided game. In fact, los che’s Georgian goalkeeper made a number of difficult saves to keep the visitors off the scoresheet, like the one from Omar Alderete’s free kick and a close-range header by Peter Federico that needed Mamardashvili to tip it around the post. Games like this are why Liverpool bought his rights.
La Liga Losers
Real Madrid
Now that’s a clásico. The game at the Nou Camp had everything a neutral fan could possibly want: tons of goals, defensive errors galore, VAR decisions, yellow cards. The final score, however, probably puts the title race to bed, even though their three remaining games all look winnable.
Manu Sánchez
Alavés really could have used something, anything from their game against Athletic Bilbao, and they played well enough to get at least a draw, but their defender’s own goal gave Bilbao the win. There wasn’t much Sánchez could have done about it, as he scarcely had time to react to his teammate Moussa Diarra’s attempted clearance of Oihan Sancet’s botched shot. Nevertheless, the result leaves his team hovering one point above the relegation zone.
Sevilla
It all looked great for the rojiblancos when Celta Vigo’s Marcos Alonso handled the ball in the penalty area and got sent off in addition to conceding a penalty that Milan Gudelj converted to knot the score at 1-1 just before halftime. Yet Celta roared back in the second half and scored two short-handed goals for a 3-2 win. Sevilla supporters were rightly enraged by this result, though they were wrong to break into the team’s training ground. If the team loses next week’s match at home to Las Palmas, one shudders to think what might happen.