2022 La Liga champions Real Madrid begin their title defence on Sunday night, away to new boys Almeria, but the new campaign has already started well for Los Blancos.
The pre-season La Liga 2022 betting odds pitched Xavi’s Barcelona as serious challengers to Real’s supremacy but, having spent heavily to strengthen their squad, the Blaugrana stumbled at the first hurdle at a packed Camp Nou against a stubborn Rayo Vallecano.
Champions League qualifiers Sevilla had already lost their opener on Friday night, so the Madrid giants (Atletico visit Getafe on Monday) can steal a march.
Lewi gets a tough welcome to La Liga
Some of Barca’s new signings made their first competitive appearance at the Camp Nou after the club had hurriedly registered all but one of the new boys so they could face Rayo Vallecano. But while winger Raphinha had a lively game, Robert Lewandowski discovered that La Liga is a different prospect to the Bundesliga and he barely had a touch as Barca were forced to settle for a 0-0 draw.
The Catalans dominated possession and racked up 18 goal attempts to two, but Rayo’s five-man defence did a superb job, and the best two chances fell to the visitors as Marc-Andre Ter Stegen made a fine stop to deny Alvaro Garcia while Sergio Camello shot wide with the goal at his mercy.
Centre-back Jules Kounde was the one who missed out as Barca registered his fellow new recruits and he is sure to feature as soon as the paperwork is done.
It won’t be the biggest shock of the season but this will certainly be one of the La Liga 2022 results of this weekend.
Sevilla missing Kounde already
While Kounde sat in the stands to watch his new team, his old mates at Sevilla went down to a shock 2-1 defeat away to Osasuna. Los Sevillistas will fancy their chances of another top-four place or even better, but they were stunned as early as the ninth minute when Argentine striker Ezequiel Avila gave the hosts a lead.
The visitors hit back straight away through Rafa Mir, after good work from Papu Gomez. But Osasuna, who finished the 2021/22 campaign in tenth and 27 points behind Sevilla, won the game when Aimar Oroz scored a 74th-minute penalty.
As well as losing Kounde to Barcelona, Sevilla also said goodbye to his defensive partner Diego Carlos who transferred to Aston Villa and, on Friday, they were also without new midfielder Isco after his arrival from Real Madrid.
Yellow Submarine off to a winning start
Meanwhile, another Champions League hopeful made a superb start as Villarreal thumped newly promoted Real Valladolid 3-0. An away win with this margin is always impressive but the Yellow Submarine worked hard for it after a goalless first half.
Just four minutes after the break Senegalese striker Nicolas Jackson got a debut goal, and when head coach Unai Emery threw on Alex Baena and Samuel Chukwueze, just after the hour mark, it had the desired effect. Chukwueze teed up Baena to double the lead, and then Baena scored his second and Villarreal’s third with a stunning strike from distance into the top corner.
Next up for the Yellow Submarine…it’s Atletico Madrid.
Aspas opens his 2022/23 account
While Lewandowski had a frustrating debut for Barcelona one of La Liga’s old hands showed him how to do it as Iago Aspas scored the opener for Celta Vigo in their 2-2 draw with Espanyol.
Only Karim Benzema scored more than Aspas’ 18 goals last season and the 34-year-old striker opened his 2022/23 account on the stroke of half time, picking up a headed pass from Augusto Solari, before firing in from a difficult angle.
It was a typical poacher’s goal and Celta Vigo thought they had the three points in the bag when Goncalo Paciencia met a cross from Javi Galan and powered his header into the top corner. But Espanyol fought back hard and were in the game again when Edu Exposito fired a left-foot shot from distance low into the bottom corner to halve the deficit… and the hosts got the jitters.
Espanyol’s comeback was complete when Oscar Mingueza tripped former Celta academy player Joselu in the penalty area deep into stoppage time. The hosts protested but Joselu kept his cool and smashed the spot kick home, down the centre of the goal, with 98 minutes on the clock.
So now it’s over to Los Blancos. The SBOTOP odds say they will win their opener and top the table after Round One.
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