The 2019-20 La Liga season restarted on Thursday night as Sevilla beat rivals Real Betis 2-0 in front of an empty stadium.
Action continued Friday night with Granada coming from behind to beat Getafe 2-1 before Valencia and Levante played out a 1-1 draw. La Liga have made all games kick off at different times, making it possible for fans to watch all 10 top flight matches each week. Many fans are taking advantage of La Liga live streaming with so much action to watch.
Defending champions Barcelona were in action on Saturday night as they hammered RCD Mallorca 4-0. Arturo Vidal headed the Catalans in front after only 65 seconds before Martin Braithwaite doubled their lead before half-time. Jordi Alba and Lionel Messi added to the comfortable win in the closing stages of the game.
This temporarily opened up a five-point lead at the top for Quique Setien’s side whilst there were also victories for Espanyol, Villarreal and Real Valladolid earlier in the day.
Barcelona’s win added some pressure to Real Madrid in their first game in over three months, hosting Eibar at the Alfredo Di Stefano Stadium on Sunday, usually home of the B team. But Zinedine Zidane’s side opened the scoring inside four minutes through a fabulous first-time strike from Toni Kroos before defenders Sergio Ramos and Marcelo gave them a 3-0 half-time lead.
Pedro Bigas scored a consolation for the visitors in the second half, but Real Madrid fans will be pleased by their side’s performance heading into the final 10 games of the season.
Barcelona are back in action on Tuesday night when they play host to relegation placed Leganes. Whilst Mallorca were 18th when they hosted Barcelona this past weekend, Leganes will start the game in 19th and only off the foot of the table on goal difference.
Arturo Vidal scored in the final 15 minutes to give Barcelona a come-from-behind 2-1 win in the reverse fixture back in November but with the short turnaround and performance from the Chilean and his teammates in their first game back, there can only be one winner midweek.
The tougher game for the defending champions will likely come on Friday night when they are away to Sevilla. Not only are Julen Lopetegui’s side third in the league, they will have had an additional day’s rest since their trip to Levante is on Monday. Though Barcelona did hammer Los Nervionense 4-0 at Camp Nou earlier in the campaign.
Real Madrid really cannot afford to drop points between now and the end of the season and one of their toughest tests may come this Thursday when they host Valencia. The Bats start the midweek fixtures in the top half and held Real Madrid to a 1-1 draw at the Mestalla back in December. However, all seven defeats this season have come on the road and they were held 1-1 by rivals Levante over the weekend.
Zidane’s side looked fluent in attack in their first game back, despite none of the attacking trio of Karim Benzama, Eden Hazard or Rodrygo getting among the goals. Of those, only Benzema played the full 90 minutes though as the other two were given a breather on the hour, with Gareth Bale and Vinicius Junior building up their match fitness levels. The former La Liga record transfer holder could play a significant role between now and the conclusion of the season.
The top two in La Liga certainly have the most strength in depth which should play in their hands given that nearly all their remaining games are only 3-4 days apart, as is for the rest of the league. They could find themselves coming up against heavily rotated sides or simply tired teams, meaning it wouldn’t be impossible that both Barcelona and Real Madrid each win their remaining 10 La Liga matches of 2019-20. –
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andym
Founder and chief editor of La Liga Blog, Andy fell in love with Spanish football after a university placement year in the Costa Del Sol. His favourite Tapas is Albondigas and on Saturday afternoons, Andy can regularly be found trying to emulate his hero Carles Puyol for his amateur football team.