A 1-1 draw meant Barcelona surrendered yet another valuable two points at the hands of their local rivals Espanyol on Monday night making it already their fifth draw of the domestic season with four of them being away from home. The gap between Barcelona and Real Madrid at the top of the table has now stretched to a worrying five points for Pepe Guardiola's men and with games coming thick and fast and time seemingly running out for the Catalonians, we ask the much debated question; exactly why have Barcelona struggled to break teams down on the road this season? … [Read more...]
Ronaldo Reacts to Real Criticism
Cristiano Ronaldo refused to celebrate his goal against Granada during the weekend rout in a reaction to jeering from the Madrid crowd who were unhappy with his recent performances. The Portuguese striker has been under fire since his below-par showing in the Clasico and some fans feel that he can be quite selfish at times. Scoring his 21st La Liga goal of the season and Madrid's 5th in the 5-1 victory, Ronaldo simply bowed his head and trudged back to the halfway line almost as though he'd put it in the wrong net, refusing to acknowledge his team mates whatsoever. Madrid based sports paper, … [Read more...]
The top 5 La Liga goals of 2011
As 2011 draws to a close and all is quiet on the La Liga front until matches resume again in 2012, we've taken the chance to look back at a selection of our favourite goals from the year gone by. We've selected what we believe in our opinion are the best 5 goals from the La Liga Primera division in 2011. So why not check them out and let us know what you think by commenting below? … [Read more...]
Who needs David Beckham when you have Inigo Martinez?
For years now, football fans across the globe have reminisced about David Beckham's debut season in the Premier League and that infamous goal he scored from the half way line against Wimbledon. It seems Spain after all these years now finally have their own answer to the long-range heroics of David Beckham in the form of novice Real Sociedad defender Inigo Martinez, who has already netted two stunning long-range goals from the half way line this season against both Athletic Bilbao and Real Betis respectively. … [Read more...]
Versatility Allows Barcelona to be the Best
Attack minded in every sense of the word, we all know about the stunning capabilities of the strike force of Barcelona. Messi, Villa, Alexis, Pedro assisted by the more than capable Fabregas and Xavi score the majority and steal the plaudits in the process whilst the likes of Pique, Puyol, Abidal and Dani Alves stay out of the TV frame for 75% of the match. Various scoring and passing feats are challenged but this season another aspect of Barcelona has caught the attention of statisticians; their misly defence. Just the 8 goals have been scored past Victor Valdes as Barcelona pose the … [Read more...]
How to level the financial playing field in La Liga
The first thing you usually hear when someone mentions La Liga to you is the response: "oh, well, it's just Barcelona and Real Madrid competing every year for the title". And while those two teams are undoubtedly the best in the planet, most football fans would agree that La Liga is not the deepest league. Serie A and the English Premier league have more teams capable of doing well in Europe and going after world class players. Outside of Malaga and the Big Two, we don't see great players going into other teams. Instead we see players like Juan Mata, David Villa, David Silva, Sergio Aguero and … [Read more...]
Valencia v Stoke: The key battles
After seeing Lionel Messi rip apart yet another Champions League defence with tantalising ease a couple of years ago,the wise, old pundit Andy Gray once remarked that he'd love to see how the Argentine would fair on a dark, damp, dreary night under the floodlights of Britannia Stadium. This question has almost been turned into cliche it has been bounded about that much recently by the media and whilst Barcelona being demoted to the Europa League was never really a possibility, we will get to feast our eyes on arguably the next best thing as Aver Banega, Jordi Alba, Roberto Soldado and Adil … [Read more...]
Barcelona Steal Plaudits in Exciting El Clasico
‘Underdogs’ Barcelona once again proved that Jose Mourinho has plenty more to do before he can finally overthrow the La Liga monarchy as his Real Madrid crumbled to a 3-1 defeat. Karim Benzema may have scored the quickest El Clasico goal after just 23 seconds but Barҫa scored 3 more to give Pep Guardiola and the Catalans the bragging rights once again through Alexis Sanchez, a deflected Xavi strike and a Cesc Fabregas header; yet the result could have been quite different had Cristiano Ronaldo not missed two glorious opportunities for Real, the very reason Mourinho used as his excuse for … [Read more...]
Poker giants Bwin tip Real Madrid for La Liga glory
Read Madrid's fine start to the season continued last weekend as their 4-1 victory over rivals Atletico Madrid put them three points clear at the top of the table with a game in hand over Barcelona. The majority of bookmakers now make Real Madrid 4/7 favorites to claim the La Liga title this season, including their sponsors online bookmakers and poker room Bwin who currently make them 11/21. … [Read more...]
Calling all budding journalists! Write for La Liga Blog today!
To all those Spanish football enthusiasts out there who have an opinion or two they'd like to share, why not try your hand at writing for La Liga Blog?! If your article's are original and related to either La Liga football or the Spanish national team then we'd like to hear from you! … [Read more...]