Barcelona’s lead at the top of La Liga remains at four points after they took all three away from the Estadio de la Ceramica with a thumping 5-1 win over Villarreal
Barca’s Sunday evening trip to Castellon turned out to be a rout as Hansi Flick’s side made it six wins from six, while inflicting a first defeat of the season on the Yellow Submarine. In a sensational team performance Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha both scored a brace, 17 year old Lamine Yamal made two assists and Pablo Torre made an assist and scored a goal. He made a brilliant pass to put Lewi in for the 20th minute opener and then Yamal sent in a superb ball for the lethal Pole to score his and Barcelona’s second, and his sixth goal of the campaign.
Villarreal halved the deficit just before the break when the in form Ayoze Perez converted a cross from Pepe for his fourth of the season, but soon after half time Torre made it 3-1 with a low long range effort. Then we saw a very rare thing. Yamal was fouled in the penalty area, the ref pointed to the spot and Lewandowski, with a golden chance to grab a hat-trick smacked his penalty against the foot of the post!
But then a late double from Raphinha finished off an emphatic performance. His first was a powerful strike which took a deflection into the corner of the net and his second was a crisp finish after he collected a delicious through ball from Yamal.
The SBOTOP La Liga 2024 betting odds make this season an El Clasico battle, with Real Madrid the favourites; but this was another statement victory from the Blaugrana as they passed their most challenging test to date in some style.
Vinicius stars again in Blancos rout
On Saturday Real Madrid had a chance to trim Barca’s lead at the top of the La Liga table and they did so emphatically with a 4-1 victory over Espanyol. Brazilian striker Vinicius Junior scored one and made an assist after climbing off the bench as Los Blancos launched a stunning second half comeback. After a goalless first half the Catalans took a shock lead when Madrid keeper Thibaut Courtois diverted a low cross into his own net. But the hosts were quickly level when, just three minutes later, Dani Carvajal was set up by Jude Bellingham to fire into an empty net. And, as Carlo Ancelotti’s side threw everything at Espanyol, they had 31 shots in the game; the introduction of Vinicius took the match away from the visitors.
First he set a goal up for Brazil team-mate Rodrygo and then he rounded off an electrifying breakaway with a superb finish. When Endrick was brought down in the penalty area the referee pointed to the spot and Kylian Mbappe made no mistake to score his fourth goal of the campaign. Los Blancos remain undefeated and climbed to within a point of leaders Barcelona while Espanyol stay just below half way in the table.
In other La Liga 2024 news, a 2-1 win over Sevilla took Alaves up to fifth place on Friday night but they dropped down to sixth as Athletic Bilbao beat Celta Vigo 3-1 on Sunday. Gorka Guruzeta scored a brace as the Basque club moved up to third, with Atletico Madrid still to play.
Valencia off the mark
A first victory of the campaign, a 2-0 win at home to Girona, lifted Valencia off the bottom of the table and to within a point of the safety line on Saturday. There was an element of luck in Los Ches’ triumph as the opener, a shot from Dani Gomez took a wicked deflection off Juanpe before nestling in the corner of the net. That was on 56 minutes and just two later the shell-shocked visitors were two behind when Gomez slotted home from the edge of the penalty area.
It was a third loss of the campaign for last season’s surprise package and Michel’s men are stranded in the bottom half and they also lost their opening Champions League match to Paris Saint-Germain in midweek. Meanwhile Valencia moved up to eighteenth, until Getafe drew 1-1 at home to Leganes to nudge Los Ches back down to 19th.
The Mestalla Stadium has not been the happiest of places in recent weeks but the 40,000 crowd had a long awaited treat on Saturday and this was a big step which could kick start Valencia’s campaign. But Michel and Girona have some thinking to do.
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