The wheels of La Liga go round and round
As the 2019 Vuelta a España rolled into action with a Team Time Trial in Torrevieja on Saturday 24 August, and with the first few stages taking place around our region, there’s every reason to drop a few cycling metaphors into this week’s column. Safe to say it’s a temptation that I’ll find hard to resist, so please excuse me if I saddle you with a few. Oops! There we go already!
If there’s one thing you can be sure of with La Liga, it’s that you can’t be sure of too much. The wheel turns and things change. This week’s match day rolled into action on Friday when Sevilla made the relatively short – just the 250 kilometres or so – trip to Granada to face the newly promoted Nazaríes. Diego Martínez’s side had started with a goal glut of a game to open their La Liga campaign, gaining a 4-4 draw against Villareal, but any hopes of a similar return in this fixture appeared distant at best. In a game that always looked like an uphill struggle, Granada hardly had a shot worthy of the name in the first period, with a clumsy mishit by Soldado five minutes ahead of the break neatly summing up their threat to the visitors’ goal. It was the sort of effort Spurs fans would recall from the forward’s misadventures at White Hart Lane.
To be fair, Sevilla hadn’t looked much more threatening, but a goal from Jordán, following in on a blocked shot by Luuk de Jong, put a spoke in the wheels of the home team. It was a blow that they never truly looked like recovering from. Was this the same Granada that found the back of the net four times last time out? Julen Lopetegui’s Los Rojiblancos hardly looked like a coherent unit either. Given the overhaul of the squad over the summer however, there’s probably some bedding-in time required and, in the interim, two wins from their first couple of outings. Topping La Liga is certainly a decent start.
Laster the same evening, Levante shook off their opening day defeat to Alavés, to record a 2-1 victory over Villareal. The visitors plundered an early lead as Gerard put them ahead on three minutes. A tandem of penalties from Roger though was enough to put the brakes on any Yellow Submarine hopes of another four-goal feast, and the home side secured the points.
Onto Saturday, and opening day winners, Osasuna found plucky Eibar a difficult nut to crack. A goalless draw with eight yellow cards – four apiece – was a better result for the visitors than the home side. At the same time as the cyclists were hurtling, line astern, around the streets of Torrevieja, over in the capital, Los Blancos had the opportunity to build on their away victory in Vigo to record maximum points from two games, with what looked like a predictable home win. Every game in La Liga is a ‘Team Trial’ though – see above – regardless of the time, and a stodgy performance seemed likely to render the points when the ever-reliable Benzema put Real Madrid ahead onside the last ten minutes.
There’s a discernible lack of confidence about Zidane’s team at the moment though, and six minutes later, as their foot slipped from the pedal, Sergi Guardiola neatly finished off a move with the aplomb of a certain Brazilian owner of the Castille and Leon club. The newspapers on Sunday morning were hardly complimentary. AS’s headline declared that it was “A Return to the Past!” for Los Blancos, and given that the club had laid out – to date – some €300m in transfer fees this summer compared to Valladolid’s less than €1m, it’s probably a reasonable charge. None of Zidane’s purchases started the game however. Jovic was again on the bench and injuries denied the coach the talents of others. Simmering discord at the Santiago Bernabéu is nothing unusual, and perhaps Zizou will be on his bike again soon. The next few weeks could define the season for him and the club.
After losing to Atlético Madrid last week, Getafe had another difficult encounter when Athletic Club came to visit what was an eerily halfempty Coliseum Alfonso Pérez. A goal on six minutes for the Basques suggested a second successive win as Raúl García efficiently converted at the far post after a cross from Capa.
Half-a-dozen minutes later though, the home team struck back when Mata stabbed home a cross to equalise. What looked like the beginning of an entertaining game though, fizzled out into a stalemate without further goals and even the introduction of last week’s game winner, Aritz Aduriz, couldn’t swing the game for Gaizka Garitano and the spoils were shared. There was better news for Celta Vigo. After being well beaten by Los Blancos on the opening day, the Celestes returned to the Balaídos to defeat a disappointing Valencia thanks to an early strike by Gabriel Fernandez and a dogged defensive display. Marcelino will need to recycle his team’s performance levels for next week’s game when Mallorca visit the Mestalla. Languishing towards the foot of the table is not what was expected of Los Murciélagos.
Sunday’s games had the look of a fairly lacklustre, if somewhat predictable outcome. Alavés played out a goalless draw with Espanyol, whilst over on the Balearics, a late Martin Ødegaard goal, following a break after defensive a corner, saw Real Sociedad overcome Mallorca. In typical Cholo style, Atlético Madrid gathered up the points against Leganés with another single goal victory. This time it was Vitolo profiting from the talents of João Félix, as the Portuguese’s weaving run and astute pass set up the goal, neatly despatched by the forward. A couple of weeks ago, I trumpeted the potential of the young Leganés forward Youssef En-Nesyri. Even without Godin however, the Atlético back line, superbly marshalled by Stefan Savi, offered hardly any breathing space, applying all the frugality of Ebenezer Scrooge on an economy drive. Better opportunities to illustrate my point about the young Moroccan will surely come.
The late kick-off took us to the Camp Nou where, once again Messi featured only as a spectator, with Luis Suárez sitting alongside him for the game between Barcelona and Real Betis. Out on the pitch, Antoine Griezmann was lining up alongside Rafinha and Carles Perez, the young wide player promoted from the B team. Despite the makeshift look of the forward line, the Blaugrana started off at a pace and threatened a couple of times before a break saw Nabil Fekir give the visitors the lead on 15 minutes. It took until 41 minutes for the home pressure to deliver a tangible reward when Griezmann diverted a through ball home, possibly via his shin. As they say though, ‘they all count’ and after the break Barcelona cantered clear with another from Griezmann, a first strike for Perez, Jordi Alba and substitute Vidal before Moron gave the score line a little respectability.
Although still with key players absent, the return of Busquets gave Barcelona some much needed control in midfield and even allowed Ernesto Valverde gave a tenminute cameo first-team debut to Ansu Fati at the age of just 16. Things look to be shaping up for Barça, and they’ll go to Pamplona to face Osasuna in a good frame of mind – and perhaps with a reinforced squad. For Betis though, sitting at the foot of the table, a home win over Leganés is now vital. We’ve got one more match day to come before the international break, and no-one will want to into that hiatus on a downer. Next week’s games will be keenly contested.