The Spanish Take: La Liga Round Up Gameweek 2

Barca And Real Madrid Matched Each Other’s Results As Atletico Suffered Their First Loss

The last decade saw some of the best Premier League players join La Liga, well, the tables have turned. Madrid legend Casemiro’s move to Man United was agreed, and future star Alexander Isak played his final game in the La Liga this week. That being said, there was a lot of exciting action for us to dive into in this week’s Spanish Take.

Also read: Winners and Losers: Premier League GW3

Ansu Fati – The Key To Barca’s Attack

Barca got their season up and running as Lewandowski gave the Blaugrana faithful the perfect birthday gift scoring a brace as Barca ultimately cruised to a 4-1 win over Real Sociedad. In spite of that, it was Ansu Fati who stole the spotlight with his game-changing cameo.

The Pole opened the scoring with a poacher’s finish in the first minute, and Sociedad drew level just five minutes later. The game remained in a deadlock till the hour mark when Xavi introduced Ansu, and what an inspired substitution that was.

Just 2 minutes later, he assisted Dembele with a beautiful flick. 2 minutes after this, he laid the ball off for Lewandowski’s second and then got himself a goal to add the icing on the cake.

Ansu has been unfortunate with injuries, and it’s really nice to see a talented, young player deliver on his potential. Xavi tried out a back 3 towards the end of the game and the Cules even got to see Ansu, Raphinha, Dembele, and Lewandowski all on the pitch together for a short period.

Villareal Lay Down An Early Marker

From Anoeta, we now shift our focus to the capital, where a resilient Villareal handed Atleti their first defeat of the season. Geronimo Rulli did well to frustrate the home side saving at least 3 clear goal-scoring chances. At the other end of the pitch, the Yellow Submarines were really clinical, with Yeremy Pino and Gerard Moreno getting on the scoresheet.

Nahuel Molina, Atletico’s shiny new toy, had a night to forget as he gifted Pino the ball for the first goal and then got a straight red for a horror challenge on Baena.

Simeone won’t be happy with that performance, having gotten off to a great start with a 3-0 win last time around in gameweek 1.

Second-half Brilliance Sees Madrid Secure Their Second Win

Finally, we shift our focus to the champions – Real Madrid. At this point, I think we should just tune in to watch Madrid only after the second half starts because they put in another disappointing first half.

Madrid’s defence was poor baring Alaba, who once again showed the world why he is one of the best in his position. But Militao gave away a poor penalty, Ferland Mendy lacked any offensive drive, and Carvajal was shoddy in possession.

For all the faults in the backline, their star players once again delivered. Modric with a beautiful goal and assist; the man just doesn’t age. And Benzema got his customary goal. Vinicius & Valverde got on the scoresheet as well. Madrid is a beautiful team to watch when they get into the rhythm, when they’re not, they get the job done.

Best Of The Rest

Bilbao ran out 1-0 victors against Valencia in a highly anticipated match at the San Mames. Alex Berenguer scored the match’s only goal, squeezing his shot past Mamardasvili; a shot the keeper would be expected to save. Bilbao created the best chances, and both the Williams brothers put the ball in the back of the net but were both ruled offside.

Rayo Vallecano backed up their draw against Barca with a win away at Espanyol. If you haven’t seen the highlights of this game, I would highly recommend you to have a look because this was a really exciting match.

Both teams were down to 10 men within the first 30 minutes. Then Isi Palazon scored a well-worked freekick routine straight from the training ground and Pathe Ciss scored a simple tap-in to wrap up a solid 2-0 win for Rayo.

Also read: The Spanish Take: La Liga Round Up Gameweek 1