La Liga Lowdown Newsletter: 08/11/22
Monday night football was pure entertainment thanks to that electric encounter between Rayo Vallecano and Real Madrid, with an unexpected 3-2 win for the home team.
A result that ends Madrid’s invincibility and sees them drop to second place in LaLiga after just adding one point out of the last six.
Andoni Iraola’s men did not feel the slightest intimidation in having to host the latest Champions League and LaLiga winners. They stayed loyal to their offensive style of football and it proved to be too much for the visiting team.
It was an incredible performance in which they had 15 shots, one less than Madrid, but with 7 on target they were clear of los blancos in that department. With this victory, Rayo are now just 2 points away from European positions and it also means they’ve not lost to any of the top 3 sides so far this season, after drawing to F.C. Barcelona and Atlético de Madrid.
Speaking of… Barça are the new league leaders thanks to their compelling performance against Almería in a packed Camp Nou that was expectant to see Gerard Piqué play his last match at the stadium after recently, and abruptly, announcing his retirement from professional football. It was an emotional night, with the crowd cheering every time Piqué made contact with the ball. But the most special moment came at the end when he was subbed off in order to receive a thundering round of applause while he hugged his teammates one by one before walking off the pitch. He then had his chance to speak to the fans present at the stadium, finishing with a touching statement: “I was born here and I will die here”.
Regarding the match itself, Barça dominated from start to finish generating 27 shots of which 13 were on target, including a penalty missed by Robert Lewandowski. Fernando did all he could to keep Barça at bay, but in the second half goals by Ousmane Dembélé and Frenkie de Jong made sure the 3 points stayed at home.
‘El gran derbi’ did not disappoint and was as competitive and hard-fought as you’d expect. A few more goals would’ve done the game justice, but the final 1-1 score was probably a fair result given both sides had some decent chances.
Instead we saw a great deal of red cards, all which required VAR intervention given the referee José María Sánchez Martínez at first had only given yellow cards in all three fouls. First it was Sevilla who were down a man after Gonzalo Montiel’s challenge on Alex Moreno, which helped Betis take the lead shortly after with a Jesús Navas own goal. But before the first half was done, Nabil Fekir was also booked with a red for slapping Papu Gómez in the face while trying to get away from him. Borja Iglesias was the final sending off shortly into the second half with a nasty tackle on Joan Jordán. As soon as he’d committed the foul you could tell from Borja’s worried face that he was guilty.
Sevilla took advantage of this and generated good chances, but it was Nemanja Gudelj’s shot from outside the box in the 81st minute that levelled things. He even hit the post and had a massive chance saved by Claudio Bravo after that. Had any of those gone in and given Sevilla the win, he would’ve been promoted from hero to legend.
Among other notable games this weekend we have to mention Espanyol’s brave accomplishment at the Metropolitano, leaving with a point despite playing with 10 men for over 70 minutes. They were actually the first to score, but João Félix saved face for his team and Cholo Simeone, who is beginning to lose support among the Atleti fanbase.
Another surprising result was Mallorca’s away win against Villarreal by 0-2. But more astonishing was the supporters reaction to Quique’s poor start, already chanting “Quique leave now!” after barely 10 days in charge. Villarreal lacked a lot of depth with very sterile possession that didn’t lead to any real chances, while Mallorca took advantage of Muriqi’s great form.
More good news for Girona who after drawing vs Real Madrid, finally succeeded in winning again after almost a month since doing so. It was also against tough opposition, Athletic Club, even though Ernesto Valverde’s men have lost a lot of that cracking pace and verticality they showed at the start of the season. Since Michel put Paulo Gazzaniga in goal and switched from a back line of 5 to 4, they finally seem to be balancing out their outstanding attack with some solid defending.
Girona won by 2-1, which was the same result we saw between Celta de Vigo and Osasuna in Carlos Carvahal’s debut replacing Eduardo Coudet, but unfortunately for him it didn’t go his way. Neither did it go Jorge Almirón’s way, who decided to step away on Monday morning after no wins in his 5 games in charge of Elche. Their defeat against Real Valladolid was the final nail in the coffin.
The other two games of the weekend were draws in the Getafe - Cádiz and Real Sociedad - Valencia, where red cards also stole the show. Neither of the four sides will be to happy with a point, given they needed or expected more.
But now they’ll have a chance to sort that out given a new midweek round starts this Tuesday. The last one before the World Cup kicks off.