As La Liga weekends go, there were fairly limited highlights, but three matches stood out for me – the beginning, the end and one contest in the middle.
The action began on Friday night when two strugglers met in Valladolid as Real Valladolid hosted Cádiz.
Just how important the solitary goal from ex-Manchester City man Alvaro Negredo in the second minute of stoppage time will be for Cadiz is unclear, but it was a moment the veteran marksman will cherish.
Both sides were in search of some much-needed positivity after their respective dismal starts and, perhaps reflecting a lack of confidence, neither created anything of note before the break at the Estadio Jose Zorrilla.
That pattern continued at both ends of the pitch after the restart before Oscar Plano crashed a superb effort against the hosts’ crossbar on the hour mark.
Cadiz’s reward for stepping up the tempo in the closing stages arrived when Negredo produced a deadly close-range finish in added time to snatch the win.
In the words of one TV station: ‘The wait for a goal is over! The wait for points is over too!’
Moving to Saturday’s La Liga action, imagine this scenario: you’re bottom of the table and you’re off to the Nou Camp.
What’s the first thing you have to do?
‘Keep it tight and maintain your discipline’ would be the obvious instruction.
Unfortunately for Elche, the plan went out of the window before the quarter-hour mark as captain Gonzalo Verdu was sent off for pulling Robert Lewandowski down when clean through.
The Pole would exact perfect revenge, netting either side of half-time as Barca moved top of the table, temporarily, en route to a comfortable win over 10 men.
As well as scoring twice to take his tally to 11 goals in eight appearances since joining the club in the summer, a player who thought he may have to move on because of Lewandowski’s arrival, Memphis Depay, made La Liga 2022 highlights as he opened his account with a powerful effort into the roof of the net.
As routine a 3-0 success as the scoreline suggests and the SBOTOP La Liga 2022 betting odds predicted.
It also helped Lewandowski and Barca bounce back from their European reverse at Bayern Munich in midweek.
The final game of the weekend was the biggest game of the weekend.
City rivals, the 2021 champions against the reigning champions, Atletico Madrid against Real Madrid who, according to my SBOTOP colleague, were facing their biggest test of the season so far.
If they felt it, Carlo Ancelotti’s men certainly didn’t show it.
It took the champions just 18 minutes to take the lead when impressive youngster Aurelien Tchouameni scooped a cheeky ball over the top which Atletico defender Felipe missed and, as the ball landed, Rodrygo was ideally placed to blast a half-volley past Jan Oblak.
Another 18 minutes in and Real doubled their advantage.
Livewire Vinicius Jr flew down the left, cut inside and was unlucky to see his shot hit the inside of the post, yet the fortune was with his team as the ball bounced into the path of Federico Valverde, who slotted home number two.
Atletico’s anger was clear amongst a section of home fans and Thibaut Courtois had to direct the match official to objects thrown onto the pitch (in both halves).
They briefly had something to cheer seven minutes from time when the usually unflappable Courtois missed an Antoine Griezmann corner and Mario Hermoso knocked the ball in with his shoulder.
However, with stoppage time about to start, the same player saw two yellow cards in as many minutes, the second for a foul on Dani Ceballos, and he was off and Atletico’s chances went with it.
A couple of stats for the visitors to enjoy.
At 22 years and 234 days, Tchouameni is the second youngest Madrid player to provide an assist in his first La Liga derby in the 21st century since Karim Benzema in November 2009 (21 years and 323 days).
Real have won all nine of their games so far this season in all competitions, the third time they have won their first nine games in a single campaign after 1961/62 and 1968/69 when, in both campaigns, they won their opening 11 games.
Ominous?
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