La Liga Gameweek 23 Summary Part One.
Athletic Club - Las Palmas (0-0)
The round 23 started with two sides underperforming this season, and this wasn’t an exception. In a pretty boring game with very few chances, especially Athletic disappointed yet again at home against Las Palmas. The game will probably be remembered for the delicious nutmeg from Aguirregaray on Iñaki Williams in the first half. Apart from this, Kepa returned to the starting-eleven, and didn’t need to make many saves in this game.
I really expected Athletic to win this, but they didn’t. Ziganda will now be in real danger losing his job, but at the moment he his still manager for the Basque-club.
Villarreal - Alavés (1-2)
How could this happen??? A goal from Rodrigo Ely sent Alavés into the lead right before half time in a game where Villarreal maybe should have been up with two or three goals already. The pressure from Villarreal continued in the second half, but the goals wouldn’t come before Alavés hit a counter and Ibai Gómez doubled Alavés’ lead. Everyone thought the game was done, but in the 77th minute, Carlos Bacca created hope again for the Yellow Submarine. Despite an immense pressure the last fifteen minutes, Alavés incredible enough won the game, and took three vital points. It’s hard to see Alavés in the relegation bottle now under Abelardo, when they are picking up points very consistently. A very impressive job by Abelardo Fernández!
Málaga - Atlético Madrid (0-1)
Another game, another 1-0 win. Two in a row for Los Rojiblancos, and the hopes are starting to grow now when Barcelona is starting to drop points. Antoine Griezmann scored the only goal, and an early one after just 40 seconds into the game. Málaga had some few chances, but not to much to talk about to be honest. A typical win from Cholo Simeone’s men. Seven points behind Barcelona now, and Atlético will now travel to Copenhagen Wednesday full of confidence.
Leganés - Eibar (0-1)
A rotated team from Leganés was almost enough, but just almost. A header from Ivan Ramis won the game late on after 93 minutes. Eibar deservedly won the game, and the fairytale continues, and will just continue even more. Next week they will try to give Barcelona a tough game, and Eibar is a really really good side at the moment, picking up three points very consistently and at least impressively!
Leganés will now just try to keep a safe place in the league after their Copa hopes died. Garitano’s men will for sure be a La Liga team next season too, after an impressive season.
Real Madrid - Real Sociedad (5-2)
The warm-up went well, and now PSG will arrive. The biggest game of the season is there, and Zidane’s future, and Real Madrid’s season depends on this game. However in this game Real Madrid won as expected deservedly, and Cristiano Ronaldo was finally back with a hattrick, and is maybe now ready to score some goals against the frenchmen. Real Madrid took the lead early on after a goal from Lucas Vazquez, and from here there was no way back for La Real. At half-time the lead was 4-0, and the game finished. Cristiano completed his hattrick in the 80th minute, and the real partidazo is now coming up this week.
Real Sociedad was yet again horrible in defense, and the early goal didn’t help. They now have to start up pick up three points consistently if Eusebio wants his job, even though this wasn’t the match to expect to much from. Real Sociedad will have Salzburg in Europa League now, before Levante is visiting at Anoeta in an important game for the white and blues.
The expectation of goals in both ends, and a clear Real Madrid was really spot on. An entertaining game to watch for the Real Madrid-fans, but a nightmare for the visitors.