Forget the Mersyside derby or the Manchester Derby this weekend, the City of Madrid steals the limelight as the showpiece match of Europe as Atletico Madrid make the short trip across Spain’s capital to the Santiago Bernabéu to face the old enemy Real Madrid. Across all competitions, the pair have met a whopping 218 times and unsurprisingly, it is Los Blancos who hold a significant statistical edge over their neighbours. Real have won exactly half of all the encounters with 109 victories between the two whilst Atletico have claimed a poultry 55 by comparison and a total of 54 … [Read more...]
The Rise of the Underdog: Girona, Real Betis, Getafe
This season, many people have been getting carried away by Barcelona’s dominance at the top of the table and Real Madrid’s domestic troubles. But the real story of the season still lies in the upper reaches of the division, just not with teams one may have expected. Girona, Real Betis and Getafe find themselves seventh, eighth and ninth respectively and above the likes of Athletic Bilbao, Real Sociedad, and Espanyol. Remarkably, newly promoted Girona find themselves just two points behind Sevilla and chasing down the unlikeliest of European places for next season. This has opened … [Read more...]
The Special History of Football in Spain
In Spain, football, as it is commonly known, or in the United States as soccer, is the most popular sport above all others. With the weather more on the fairer side most of the time, the Spanish national football team triumphed in both training and ended up winning the FIFA World Cup in 2010 and went on to be successful in the UEFA European championship and multiple Olympic tournaments. The traditional Spanish word for football is actually "futbol." 19th Century “Futbol” Football initially came to the shores of Spain in the late 1900s as an imported game from the British Isles where it … [Read more...]
What Happened to Cristian Tello? The Man Expected to Carry Barcelona
When Cristian Tello broke into the Barcelona first team during the 2011/12 season it looked like the man who was part of Spain’s under-21 squad that won the 2013 European Championships would carry the Blaugrana forward line for the next decade. Everything certainly started well after scoring a brace in the 9-0 hammering of CE L'Hospitalet in the Copa Del Rey and then later scoring in his first league start against Real Sociedad in early February 2012. This begs the question, why (with so much positivity surrounding the Spaniard's early career) are we not raving about Tello’s achievements … [Read more...]
Barcelona Look to Take Advantage of Chelsea Plight
Real Madrid did their bit for Spanish football breezing past a despondent looking PSG and now it is the turn of Barcelona to continue flying La Liga’s flag on the grandest of European Stages. Chelsea are the visitors to the Camp Nou with the last sixteen match-up finely poised after a tight 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge. After hammering Girona 6-1 immediately after that strong score-draw against Chelsea in the first leg, Barce have also managed to pick up a point away at Las Palmas but more impressively, three points over rivals Atletico Madrid However, since that night in West London, … [Read more...]