There was a familiar look to results in La Liga this week, as Real Madrid and Barcelona scored victories on the road. Yet, scratch beneath the surface of the weekend’s scores and the league itself is shaping up to be a surprisingly competitive affair across the board.
Madrid were far from the finished article, having scored just once in their opening two games. Whilst Barcelona had gone from a superb opening victory to a shock defeat at home to Hercules.
On Saturday, it was Madrid’s turn to face one of the newly promoted sides. However, in this instance, the opponents were the more familiar Real Sociedad.
Recent history had seen the two clubs battle it out for the la liga title in 2002/2003.
Since then Sociedad had endured relegation and three seasons in the wilderness before their return and it was refreshing to see them put up a decent fight.
On the same weekend that a newly promoted Blackpool side offered little to match the English champions Chelsea, it was perhaps a sign of the depth of quality that exists in Spain that Sociedad proved worthy opponents.
With the game tied at 0-0 in the first half, Madrid took the lead just after half time through Di Maria.
Sociedad came storming back though, equalising eleven minutes later through summer signing and forgotten hero of Espanyol, Raul Tamudo.
But with just over fifteen minutes from the end, Cristiano Ronaldo scored to rescue the Galacticos in a scenario familiar to many Madrid fans last season.
Elsewhere, Espanyol enjoyed a 1-0 home victory against an Almeria side that have yet to win in the league this season.
There was good news for Real Mallorca though, as Michael Laudrup’s somewhat makeshift team secured their first win of the season, at home to Osasuna.
Whilst the away side could easily have taken an early lead, it was Mallorca who struck first through a Castro penalty.
What followed was a period of sustained pressure from Osasuna, whose best chance came to former Mallorca player Pandiani, who headed wide.
The win was sealed in second half injury time as Jonathan De Guzman broke through to score and spark celebration amongst the Balearic island team’s fans.
Saturday also saw the comeback of the weekend as Sporting Gijon hosted Athletic Bilbao. Early on, Sporting raced into a 2 – 0 lead, through goals from Miguel and Sangoy.
But just six minutes after the second, Gurpegi scored to give Bilbao a way back into the game.
And sure enough, with just over half an hour left Llorente levelled for the visitors to set up an exciting finale. Neither side could find a winner and the game ended 2-2.
The pick of Sunday’s matches saw Barcelona travel to face an in form Athletico Madrid. Recent seasons had seen Barca struggle at the Vicente Calderón.
But the Catalan club were able to build on their mid week Champions league win to see off Athletico in a nevertheless tightly contested affair.
With Messi giving Barca the lead on 14 minutes, the home side proved resilient and equalised through Raul Garcia on the 25 minute mark. But like Madrid before them, back came the Catalonians, with Pique scoring on 33 minutes.
The game was a bad tempered affair with 11 yellow cards shown.
Things then turned even uglier in added on time as Ujfalusi saw red for a foul on Messi that left the Argentine with suspected ankle ligament damage.
Messi’s injury could spell good news not only for Madrid but also Valencia, who are the only team to maintain a 100% record after three games.
On Sunday, they faced Barca’s conquerors from the week before, Hercules in a game which Los Che were expected to win.
And things couldn’t have started better for them, with Juan Mata scoring inside 2 minutes and Pablo adding a second on the 23 minute mark.
At this point the home fans may have started to question whether the previous weekend had just been a fluke, but just before half time, they responded as David Trezeguet converted a penalty for a Navarro foul.
Four minutes into the second period, it got even better for them as Navarro received his second yellow card. But Los Che held on to the victory which also saw them hold on to top spot in the table.
While Hercules and Sociedad faced defeat at home with some optimism for the season, the same cannot be said for the other newly promoted side Levante.
They too faced tricky opponents at home, in the form of Villarreal. It was to prove another difficult day for the home side, as Nilmar struck twice in the first half to put the Yellow Submarine in control.
A goal from former Manchester City striker Felipe Caicedo in the 90th minute proved only a consolation, as Levante now sit bottom of the table.
One point above them, sit Real Zaragoza. Sunday’s away trip to Racing Santander was goalless for much of the game before the home side struck through Henrique in the 78th minute. As Zaragoza poured forward in search of an equaliser, Santander hit them on the break in injury time with a second goal through Nahuelpan.
The final game of the weekend saw the Andalusia derby between Malaga and Sevilla. Before kickoff, it was looking good for Malaga, with Luis Fabiano and Jesus Navas both ruled out of the match for the away team.
It looked even better for them once the game began, with Jose Rondon scoring for Malaga after just 15 minutes. Five minutes later though, Sevilla hit back through youth team product Alfaro, who was only in the side due to Navas’s injury.
Then in first half injury time, Martin Caceres, heading in from a free kick to complete the turn around.
Sevilla currently occupy second place in the table, ahead of Real Madrid on goal difference and just behind Valencia in what is shaping up to be a another fascinating season in Spain.