News & Analysis from Spain
Atletico Madrid beat the MLS All-Stars in front of a 25,527 strong crowd at the Explora Stadium in Orlando. Marcos Llorente, a summer arrival from cross town rivals Real, opened the scoring on 43 minutes. Another recent signing, young Joao Felix doubled their advantage in the 85th minute, and Diego Costa finished things off with his 93rd minute effort.
Here are the player ratings for the game from AS.
The game took place in the wee hours of the morning, but 7-3 was certainly not a score we were expecting from the first Madrid derby in the United States.
Even as a pre-season game, the nature of the defeat would’ve been a tad alarming for Real Madrid fans, and here is what two newspapers in the Spanish capital ran on the game.
Continue reading “Spanish Paper Reaction to Atletico 7-3 Real Madrid”
“Pesadilla” (Nightmare) ran the headline of Spanish newspaper Super Deporte, as local club Valencia exited out of Europe following a Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang masterpiece at the Mestalla. VCF had prided themselves on their home defence coming into this fixture and would’ve fancied a shot at Arsenal, known to struggle on the road, but Aubameyang’s excellent hat-trick sent Spain’s last remaining representatives in European competition crashing out. With their 4-2 win at the Mestalla, Arsenal won 7-3 on aggregate, and VCF followed Barca in exiting from Europe.
It also means that both European club finals will be all-English affairs (Liverpool-Tottenham and Arsenal-Chelsea), and AS was quick to run a headline implying that Brexit didn’t apply for football!
Fracaso Historico (Historic Failure), ran Marca’s headline after Barcelona were knocked out of the Champions League in stunning circumstances following a 4-0 loss to Liverpool at Anfield last night.
Leading 3-0 from the first leg, Barcelona only needed to score once to put the task beyond the Reds’ reach, but capitulated in spectacular circumstances at Anfield. The way they conceded the fourth decisive goal perhaps summed up their evening- it’s the type of goal that school kids are coached to avoid, with Valverde’s men caught napping at a corner.
Marca were also scathing in their rankings- Messi, Vidal, Ter Stegen and Busquets were the only one to get a single star, while the rest weren’t even deemed worthy of being rated.
Continue reading “Marca Player Ratings Liverpool 4-0 Barcelona- Blaugrana criticised”
Barcelona officially ended Real Madrid’s hopes of claiming the La Liga title with a 2-0 win over Alaves. The goals were scored by Alena and Suarez (penalty), both coming in the third quarter of the game.
Here are the player ratings from the game, and it’s perhaps not surprising that both goal scorers rated high.
There were two other games played today. Continue reading “Alaves 0-2 Barcelona Player Ratings April 23 2019”
Here’s La Liga’s Team of the Week for fixtures played in Game Week 33.
Only one game ended goalless, and that was the clash between Rayo and Huesca. Only two away teams won on MatchDay 33- they were Atleti away at Eibar, and Valencia on the road against Betis.
La Liga Results Week 33
Alaves 2-2 Valladolid
Celta 2-1 Girona
Eibar 0-1 Atleti
Vallecano 0-0 Huesca
Barcelona 2-1 Sociedad
Getafe 3-0 Sevilla
Real Madrid 3-0 Athletic Bilbao
Villarreal 2-1 Leganes
Betis 1-2 Valencia
Continue reading “La Liga Team of the Week Jornada/Round 33- April 2019”