It was back in the 1970s, that Sir Elton John once sang “Saturday Night’s alright for fighting.”
But nearly forty years on, in the world of La Liga, Saturday night offered little in the way of a fight against the supremacy of Barcelona and Real Madrid.
For the past few weeks, Spain’s most familiar duopoly has been threatening to seize control of La Liga title. On Saturday night, this dominance was confirmed in emphatic fashion.
First there was Real Madrid, who entertained a well organised Athletic Bilbao at the Santiago Bernabeu. The Galacticos were two up after half an hour thanks to goals from Gonzalo Higuain and Cristiano Ronaldo. Bilbao then threatened to come back into the game with a goal through Fernando Llorente ten minutes later. But Real responded in the second half with two more goals for Ronaldo to complete a hat trick and another from defender Sergio Ramos.
5-1 should have been enough to grab all of the headlines, but it wasn’t. Instead, the plaudits went to Barcelona, who crushed strugglers Almeria, 8-0 away from home!
Pep Guardiola’s side were 5-0 up by half time with two goals from Lionel Messi and strikes from Iniesta and Pedro as well as an own goal. The second half saw Messi complete a hat trick and substitute Bojan Krkic grab a quick fire double to complete the rout.
Meanwhile, nearest rivals Villarreal and Valencia met in a dour derby that served neither side’s pursuit of the big two at all well. A defensively minded Valencia took the lead on 20 minutes through Aritz Aduriz.
The lead remained until the 73rd minute, when Giuseppe Rossi levelled for the Yellow Submarine. Seven minutes later Marius Stankevicius saw red for the visitors and Villarreal poured forward in search of a winner. But to Unai Emery’s side’s credit, Los Che defended in numbers and held on for a draw.
Sunday saw the goals continue to reign down in Spain as Barca’s cross town rivals Espanyol enjoyed a 3-0 win over newly promoted strugglers Hercules. Joan Verdu gave the home side the perfect start with a goal after 14 minutes. Two penalties in the final 11 minutes secured the points with Dani Osvaldo and Luis Garcia dispatching both spot kicks and Hercules goalkeeper Jan Calatayud seeing red for the foul that brought the first. The win saw Espanyol maintain their impressive 100% record at home and move to within two points of Villarreal in 4th.
This was partly due to a heroic last minute win for Real Mallorca over Gregorio Manzano’s side, Sevilla. Mallorca led for much of the game thanks to a first half goal from Michael Pereira. Luis Fabiano looked to have salvaged a draw for the home side with a goal on 88 minutes, but Mallorca took advantage of slack defending to score almost immediately from the re-start through Cameroonian striker Pierre Webo- helping to ease any relegation worries.
Two places behind Espanyol are Atlético Madrid, who enjoyed an eventful win away at ninth placed Real Sociedad. The home side led for nearly an hour through a goal from Joseba Llorente, but with Just under twenty minutes left, Atlético broke through to equalise through Forlan. A quick-fire double from Sergio Aguero seemingly put the away side in control before Sociedad’s Gutierrez Diego Rivas set up a nervy finale with four minutes to go. The scoring was then completed deep into stoppage time as Portuguese winger Simao Sabrosa converted a penalty to secure a 4-2 win and 3 points for the Europa League holders.
At the bottom of the table, the goals continued to flow with Deportivo continuing their recent return to form with an important 3-0 win at home to fellow strugglers Malaga.
The visitors, under the stewardship of new manager Manuel Pellegrini, found themselves two goals down within the opening half an hour after first Adrian Lopez converted a penalty and then Argentine Diego Colotto gave Depor an early lead. Pablo Alvarez completed the scoring late on as Deportivo moved up to 12th.
Levante also enjoyed a glut of goals, with a 3-1 home victory against Racing Santander. A quick brace from Felipe Caicedo put the Valencia based side in control around the 25th minute mark. The second goal was marred by controversy, after Levante opted to play on despite an injury to Santander striker Ivan Bolado. The subsequent brawl saw Racing’s Domingo Cisma sent off, and the game effectively ended as a contest. Stuani added a third for Levante before half time, though Santander had the final word through Mehdi Lacen, who scored with three minutes to go.
The lowest scoring game of the weekend saw Sporting Gijon fall to a 1-0 loss at Osasuna. The defeat saw Gijon drop into the bottom three and was sealed thanks to a second half strike from Shojaei Massoud.
With 36 goals scored across nine matches this weekend, La Liga has certainly proven itself to be an entertaining, if somewhat predictable league to be in.