With a game to play on Sunday night, at home to struggling Sevilla, Xavi’s Barcelona already had the near perfect weekend when their lead at the top of La Liga was undisturbed, as the five teams placed second to sixth picked up the sum total of one point between them.
The La Liga 2023 betting odds back a Barca title and if their rivals have many more weekends like this it will be like a stroll in the park!
Madrid nightmare in Mallorca
Second placed Real Madrid went to the holiday destination of Mallorca expecting sunshine, smiles and three points but they were proved disastrously wrong as they returned to Madrid empty handed and still five points behind the Blaugrana, and the gap could increase to eight. Los Blancos defender Nacho scored the only goal of the game, in the wrong end, but with 80 minutes left to play the visitors only had themselves to blame as they managed just one meagre attempt on target throughout the 99 minutes played.
And that was a saved penalty, struck by Marco Asensio after Vinicius Junior had won the spot kick early in the second half. If that had gone in, Real Madrid would probably have gone on and won the match, they had 20 attempts in total but when Anton Rudiger headed inches wide on 98 minutes the game was up.
Cyle crushes Sociedad
At SBOTOP odds of 1.65 to win in their Sunday evening clash at home to Valladolid, Real Sociedad had a chance to close the gap on Real Madrid to two points. But they made little headway in a goalless first half which yielded six yellow cards, four for the battling visitors who started the game just a point outside the drop zone. And it got worse for La Real in the second half as Cyle Larin, on loan from Club Brugges, headed home the winner which made it back to back wins and took Valladolid up to 13th.
With 15 shots to seven and four to two on target Sociedad did enough to win but Valladolid keeper and captain, Jordi Masip, made two great saves to keep his clean sheet.
Correa scores while he’s sat on the bench
In one of the more bizarre of the weekend’s highlights Atletico Madrid winger Angel Correa was awarded a goal while he sat on the substitute bench, during Los Rojiblancos’ 1-1 draw with Getafe. He thought he’d scored, on the hour, but his goal was ruled out for offside and coach Diego Simeone replaced him with Yannick Carrasco. Correa believed that was his last action of the day but he was wrong as good old VAR overturned the decision and his team-mates rushed to congratulate him as he put his track top on!
Atletico really should have won all three points but they were wasteful in front of goal and when the referee spotted a Saul Niguez handball he pointed to the spot, and Enes Unal smashed home the penalty with Getafe’s only shot on target in the entire match.
Milla sinks Yellow Submarine
Bottom club Elche picked up a first win of the season with a stunning 3-1 victory over fifth placed Villarreal. Spanish winger Pere Milla was the hero with a well taken hat-trick at the Manuel Martinez Valero Stadium. Milla set Elche on the road to their first win in 20 attempts, firing home with just three minutes on the clock and, after Gerard Moreno levelled for the Yellow Submarine, Milla kept his cool to convert two penalties for Pablo Machin’s side.
They need a spectacular set of La Liga 2023 results to escape the drop but Elche fans can, at least, start to hope that the second half of the campaign will be better than the first.
Betis implode as Felipe sees red
He’s a record breaker for sure, but not in the way he would like to be, because when Real Betis defender Luiz Felipe was sent off at the end of his team’s 4-3 loss to Celta Vigo it was the second time he had taken an early bath against the same opposition this season. He only lasted 20 minutes when they met in October… so his 95th minute dismissal was an improvement I guess!
In a breathless start to the game Celta opened the scoring when Jorgan Larsen seized on a mistake in the Betis defence and Juanmi levelled with just nine minutes on the clock. Sergio Canales put Betis ahead but the scores were level again when Gabriel Veiga scored with a clever chip. And it was Veiga who gave Celta the lead early in the second half before defender Joseph Aidoo gave the visitors daylight midway through the half.
Betis fans got a first glimpse of January signing Ayoze Perez when he climbed off the bench with 20 minutes remaining and Nabil Fekir gave the hosts hope when he converted an 84th minute penalty, but the equaliser never arrived.
Felipe was also sent off against Athletic Bilbao in December so this latest red card made it three in just 11 league appearances this season and two in his last four games!
Disclaimer: Odds are correct at time of publish.
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