La Liga Weekly Round up – 5th of May
Real Madrid have been crowned La Liga Champions for the 31st time. Murcia lost to Racing Santander and are the second team to be relegated this season, Barcelona humiliated Valencia with a six nil victory.
Felipe Bazon gives you all the action of the weekends La Liga…..
Zaragoza 1-0 Deportivo
Playing at home Zaragoza were in command the whole match, needing the three points to move out of the relegation zone. “Los manos” created a lot of opportunities to score but strikers Diego Milito and Ricardo Oliveira failed to capitalise.
The match was heading towards the end, the crowed was losing faith, it was like a supernatural force was stopping Zaragoza from scoring, but amongst those that still had faith, it was Zaragoza’s defender Ayala who touched home a nice pass from Sergio Garcia to give the victory and at least for this round, move Zaragoza away from the death zone.
Atl'tico Madrid 3-0 Recreativo
The past few weeks haven’t been so good for Atl'tico Madrid, and the supporters were starting to have doubts about whether they would manage to secure the Champions League seat for next season, but what better place to regain confidence than at home.
With the new Spanish wonder kid Nacho Camacho in the starting eleven Atletico grabbed the three points and the confidence to secure the European top flight for next season. Camacho opened up the scores and became the youngest player to score a goal in La Liga for Atletico.
In the second half it was “El Kun Aguero” another young promise from Argentina who doubled the scores and Camacho with his second and third for Atl'tico Madrid sealed the victory for the home side. The result is bad news for Recreativo who are back in the relegation zone.
Sevilla 2-0 Valladolid
After failing to score recently, Sevilla finally found the route to goal again, but it wasn’t through La Liga’s “Pichichi” (name of a trophy given to the top scorer in La Liga) Luis Fabiano, nor Fred Kanoute, it was midfielder Renato who scored both goals for Sevilla.
With the three points, Sevilla can still dream of a place in the top European competition next season as they are only three points behind Atletico Madrid and with three games to go, a lot can change.
Racing Santander 3-2 Murcia
A spectacular comeback from Racing, which might secure a place in Europe next season. Meanwhile Murcia are relegated after failing to hold on to the lead and the three points. The first ten minutes Racing were in control and putting pressure on Murcia’s defence, but they failed to capitalise, whilst Murcia took the opportunities they had.
Pena put the ball in the box and Aquino headed the first one home. After a defensive error from Racing’s defence Ayoze, he also hammered in the second. The second goal made Racing wake up and start to put pressure on the Murcia defence and soon all that effort turned into Racing’s first goal.
Munitis struck, De Coz tried to block, but the shot deflected the ball in. Racing’s equaliser came in the second half through Jorge Lopez and the winner by captain Munitis, who let fly a left footer to beat Murcia’s keeper Carini and seal the victory for Racing Satander.
Athletic Bilbao 1-2 Mallorca
A lot of action in this one. Spanish international Guiza opened up the scores for the visitors Mallorca and Llorente equalised for Athletic Bilbao and that was the rhythm through out the match, both teams with an offensive formation and a solid back four, they went into half time level. But the “archer” and new La Liga “Pichichi” Guiza, broke the deadlock for the second time to give the victory to Mallorca.
Levante 1-1 Espanyol
Playing against relegated side Levante, Espanyol took another step back into the fight for a place in Europe next season. With a goalless first half the home side took the lead through Juamma, but when Levante thought they had the three points, the ref assigned a penalty for Espanyol, Luis Garcia took it to equalise and share the points.
Villareal 2-0 Getafe
An unfair result for Getafe, playing away from “los azulones”. They played better than Villareal, but football is not always about playing well, it’s the goals that count and that was what Villareal got. After a nice one two between Rossi and Cazorla that set up Nihat, the Turk hammered the first in. Six minutes later the Turk doubled the count after a nice assist from Pires. The second goal knocked out Getafe, who could not react in the second half and the game ended in a 2 nil victory for Villareal.
Almeria 1-1 Betis
Playing away, Betis had a more defensive system than Almeria, so the visitors sat back and played on the counter attack. It took some time, but Betis’ tactics paid off just before the half time whistle. After failing on two previous occasions Odonkor did not miss the third and Betis went one up. With only two minutes into the second half Almeria found an equaliser through Pulido and the teams had to share the points.
Barcelona 6-0 Valencia
A real goal fest for Barcelona, a little late though. Against a sleeping Valencia, BarÄ‚§a scored three of the six goals in the first 15 minutes. Messi was fouled outside the box but the ref thought that the Argentinian was inside the box and assigned a penalty for Barcelona. Messi took it and scored the first for BarÄ‚§a, three minutes later Xavi scored the second, French hitman Henry scored third and fourth and Bojan the last two.
Osasuna 1-2 Real Madrid
Osasuna needed the three points to keep fighting to maintain their La Liga status for next season, on the other hand Real Madrid needed to win to be crowned Champions. But Osasuna were determined to delay the party for another week. With both teams needing the points for different reasons things were pretty hot from the beginning, but both teams went to the break without scoring.
In the first minute of the second half Real Madrid were a man down, Canavaro picked up a second yellow card and was sent off. Things were not looking good for “los blancos” and they got even worse when PuÄ‚±al gave the lead to Osasuna after converting from the penalty spot with only 7 minutes to go. But once again Robben and HiguaÄ‚n saved the day, HiguaÄ‚n served a ball inside the box and Robben headed home the equaliser four minutes later. Then spectacularly, HiguaÄ‚n scored a second to give the 31st La Liga title to Real Madrid.
Standings
1-Real Madrid 35-78
2-Villarreal 35-68
3-Barcelona 35-64
4-Atletico Madrid 35-58
5-Racing Santander 35-56
6-Sevilla 35-55
7-Real Mallorca 35-50
8-Deportivo La Coruna 35-49
9-Almeria 35-49
10-Espanyol 35-48
Congrats to RM. They had a tremendous year