The weekend began with a wonderful fairytale involving surprise leaders. By Friday night, they had been surpassed by their more illustrious neighbours in Catalonia, and, within 24 hours, there was a third and familiar foe back at the summit.
That was the weekend in La Liga.
It all began on Friday as Barcelona huffed and puffed as they welcomed Sevilla to the Nou Camp. There was a notable focus off as well as on the pitch, with Sevilla opting not to have any representatives in the VIP box in protest at the corruption case surrounding the hosts.
Barca face charges over payments made to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, a former vice president of the referees’ committee, in return for favourable refereeing decisions, allegations the club strongly deny.
As for on the park, Barca lost Raphinha to a first-half hamstring injury in the one downside to a contest settled by Sergio Ramos, who scored an own goal to give his old rivals victory.
Real Madrid legend Ramos, back in Spain with Sevilla after a two-year spell at Paris St-Germain, was playing a record 34th La Liga match against the Catalan giants, and the 37-year-old settled the game when he shinned Lamine Yamal’s header across goal and past his own keeper.
Fast forward to Saturday teatime, and it was off to North Catalonia with Girona, the previous league leaders and top scorers in the division, hosting the mighty Real Madrid at Montilivi, a ground that holds only 14,624, some of them on scaffolding stands.
Between them, they have 279 top-flight seasons; Girona have three.
A city of 97,586 people, overshadowed by Barcelona 99 kilometres down the road, and a club that sold a number of its best players this summer, including Oriol Romeu (to Barcelona), top scorer Taty Castellanos (who enjoyed this match last term), their best winger Rodrigo Riquelme, and centre-back, Santi Bueno.
All of them played at least 33 of 38 league games last season. Six players have since arrived, two on loan and one on a free transfer, for little more than €15 million, with their salary limit set at €51.98m. Compare that to Madrid’s €727.45m.
Ultimately, the gap showed on the pitch as Real bounced back from their derby day defeat to Atletico to enjoy more La Liga 2023 highlights and inflict their first defeat of the season on Girona.
The returning Jude Bellingham was at the centre of much as he netted his seventh goal of the season.
Joselu opened the scoring from a fabulous Bellingham pass before Aurelien Tchouameni headed in the visitors’ second. Bellingham completed the scoring with a smart second-half finish.
The 20-year-old is only the second player to score at least six goals in his first seven La Liga matches for Madrid this century, after Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009.
The game ended on a sour note for the visitors as Nacho was dismissed deep into added time for a reckless challenge on Portu, who left the field on a stretcher. Real would also have been buoyed by the performance of Vinícius Jr. who looked lively in his first start since returning from a thigh muscle injury before being taken off in the 68th minute.
Elsewhere, Villarreal showed their mettle by holding out for nearly 80 minutes in a goalless draw at Getafe, while a contender for the latest goal of the season saw Radmael Falcao scored a 102nd-minute penalty to earn Rayo Vallecano at home to Mallorca. It ensured the home side walked away with a point. They remain seventh, while Mallorca moved up to 14th.
Meanwhile, Real Sociedad leapfrogged Athletic Bilbao into fourth place with a comprehensive 3-0 home win.
Robin Le Normand opened the scoring in the first half, with Takefusa Kubo doubling the lead minutes into the second period. Mikel Oyarzabal added a third in the 66th minute.
If there was one player I felt sorry for this weekend, it was Luis Suarez.
The Colombian was due to claim the Sunday headlines after netting a four-minute hat-trick to have Almeria dreaming of a first league win of the season against last season’s Segunda Division champions.
Earlier this week, Almeria parted ways with head coach Victor Moreno, who himself had only taken over as head coach in the summer following the resignation of Rubi.
Victory would not only have lifted them off the foot of the table but also taken them above Granada in the process. Yet despite Suarez’s best efforts, they were pegged back during a remarkable second-half fightback.
Interestingly, each of Suarez’s goals was set up by the same teammate, Largie Ramazani.
It’s particularly poignant to highlight that this very Granada side, against whom he scored a treble, marked the beginning of the Colombian’s European journey.
Back in 2016, he represented Granada B. Subsequently, from 2020 to 2022, he graced the La Liga, making 64 appearances and scoring 13 goals for the senior “Nazaríes” outfit.
However, Suarez’s outstanding contribution wasn’t enough for Almeria to clinch the victory. Granada mounted a second-half comeback, netting three of their own in addition to missing a penalty.
It may only be early in the season, but the SBOTOP La Liga 2023 betting odds look as familiar as the league table.
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