La Liga GW 19 summary - Part two

Levante - Celta Vigo (0-1)

The early game between Levante and Celta Vigo was a game where Celta should thank their goalkeeper Rubén Blanco for getting the three points. Celta was lucky not to concede, and Blanco played an outstanding game in goal for the away side. Surprisingly Levante didn’t start with their Macedonian-star Enis Bardhi in this game, and imo he should start every game like this. The danish winger Pione Sisto continued his great season, and scored the only goal in this game, giving Celta the three points. My draw prediction for this game deserved to be right I would say. Celta was lucky.

Alavés - Sevilla (1-0)

At the Mendizorrotza Stadium, Alavés continued their good form after Abelardo Fernández came in for De Biasi. After this victory and a goal from the captain Manu García, they are now slowly moving away from the relegation zone, and also sending Deportivo down fighting for the relegation spot. The swedish-striker John Guidetti also got his debut and looked promising for Alavés playing around 75minutes in this game.

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I don’t know what to say about Sevilla to be honest. Are they losing their identity after Monchi left and Oscar Arias took over as a sporting director? The fans are clearly not happy about this, and showed up at training showing their frustration. This resulted in that every new signing from Sevilla started this game, and I don’t know either how long Montella will be the manager for this club. For the fans of Sevilla, I have to be honest that I hope he is gone in the summer. Sevilla clearly has to change something now if they want to impress like they have been doing the past few years with good signing after good signing, and lovely attacking football. Now they have just one point in the last five league games which is embarrassing for a club like Sevilla. My prediction of a draw was wrong here, and I expect more from Sevilla in the coming months.

Espanyol - Athletic Club (1-1)

Not a match to remember for a long time. Two teams who is starting to improve, but don’t entertain to much. One thing is for sure and Quique Flores will stay at the club after being contacted by Stoke and being heavily speculated about his future. Now it’s official he will stay, and hopefully that will bring good moments for the Espanyol-fans.

The game started with a goal from Gerard Moreno, but just six minutes later in the 35th minute Iñaki Williams equalized with a great great header after a good cross from Enric Saborit. A header Aduriz would have been proud of for sure. The game ended with one point to each team, and deserved I would say. Not too much to talk about from this game, and Athletic will be back at Friday in a tough away battle again against Getafe, while Espanyol will have another match at home against the underperforming Sevilla. My prediction about a Athletic-win was ok, but they didn’t deserve very much to win to be honest.

Real Sociedad - Barcelona (2-4)

The partidazo of the weekend. The big game at Anoeta. The nightmare for Barcelona. After 11 years without winning at the Anoeta in the league, they finally got their win after a strong comeback after La Real was leading 2-0. The game started with a great header from Willian Jose and some minutes later the home team got a goal probably wrong disallowed for a free kick on Ivan Rakitic. However, La Real took the lead 2-0 after a Juanmi goal, and at that point it was very unlikely that Barca was going to win this. Right before halftime Paulinho, the great signing scored again giving hopes for the Barca-fans.

When Luis Suárez also scored right after halftime in the 50th minute, it looked dangerous for the home team. In final 20minutes of the game Luis Suárez was back again scoring the important 3-2 goal meaning Barca was starting to end their nightmare at this ground. In the final minutes of the game, Lionel Messi made the day perfect for the away sides when he scored a free kick from around 25-30meters from the goal, after Gerónimo Rulli the goalkeeper didn’t show any ambition to save the shot, and was hopeless in goal. Finally it was over for Barcelona, and three more points added meaning Real Madrid is now more close to relegation zone than to Barcelona. Who would have believed that before this season, and after the Supercopa-matches? Prediction was on point here, but the result was wrong.

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Real Betis - Leganés

The final match of the round 19 was between two very different teams. A home side with Quique Setién who will entertain you match after match, against a very solid Leganés-team conceding only 14 goals before this match, and scoring 13.

The game started pretty well for the home side, and Cristian Tello sent Betis into the lead after a rebound from the goalkeeper Iván Cuéllar, and when also Joaquin doubled their lead in the 40th minute, everything looked very safe, before Gerard Gumbau scored with a longshot right before halftime in the 44th minute.

When Leganés completed their comeback with a goal from Javier Eraso in the final 20minutes it looked like a very disappointing night for the Betis-fans, but… Some times, things are meant to be, and this was no exception. In the 83rd minute the home-coming familiar striker Rubén Castro scored at penalty giving Betis a 3-2 victory in a very entertaining game which was not seen very likely before this game because of Leganés. However the prediction of a Betis-win was right, but I didn’t believe this was the way it was going to be.

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//Sportsradar