While most major leagues have wrapped up their domestic championships, La Liga continues to rumble on. And although the winners have long been crowned, the back end of the table is yet to be determined, with four teams ready to fight for their lives during the final jornada of the season this weekend. As it stands, a 3-1 defeat for 17th-placed Deportivo La Coruña at Málaga means that all four teams in the relegation spots – Depor, Celta Vigo, Real Zaragoza and Real Mallorca – still have a chance of avoiding the drop. Celta, in 18th on 34 points, won 2-0 away to Real Valladolid. Zaragoza, who also have 34 points, sit in 19th place and were thrashed 4-0 at Real Betis, while Mallorca, who … [Read more...] about La Liga: Relegation battle rages
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La Liga: Deportivo fight back
Just three weeks ago, with only three liga wins all season to their name, Deportivo de La Coruña were staring down the barrel of relegation. Currently working with their third manager of the season, it’s a far cry from the glory days of a decade ago. League title winners in the 1999–2000 season and runners-up on five occasions, not so long ago the club was regularly finishing in the top half of the table and featuring in European competition. Depor played in the UEFA Champions League five seasons in a row, and reached the semi-finals in 2004 where they were eventually defeated by José Mourinho’s Porto side who would go on to lift the trophy. They have been relegated before, dropping … [Read more...] about La Liga: Deportivo fight back
La Liga: Despondent Benzema searches for form
Last week, Karim Benzema was booed by the home crowd as he departed the Stade de France during a World Cup qualifier against Spain. It was not the first time this season he has been heckled by his own fans. Whilst the same has not yet occurred at the Santiago Bernabéu, the Frenchman is struggling to score, with every passing week and every goalless game sending his confidence plummeting. Brought in to the club by President Florentino Pérez, who flew to Lyon to personally secure his signing in 2009, Benzema’s trajectory at Real Madrid has been up and down to say the least, going from a cat to a lion and perhaps now back to the cat again. It was coach José Mourinho who, in his first … [Read more...] about La Liga: Despondent Benzema searches for form
La Liga: Levante v Real Madrid
The Ciutat de València has been a fortress this season, with no team having won there and on Sunday night it was certainly the scene of an epic battle. As José Mourinho’s men were all too aware, the home of Levante has been a tough place to go and the team had never won there in the league under the Portuguese coach. Madrid lost here last season, dropping vital points which were forgotten in the wake of their league win but now, trailing league leaders Barcelona by an eight-point gap, memories of the loss could not be ignored. Sergio Ballesteros, a veteran defender who you would not like to meet in a darkened alley, sent a clear message to the opposition, carried via the front cover of … [Read more...] about La Liga: Levante v Real Madrid
La Liga: Falcao firepower lets Atlético dream
He struck again at the weekend, scoring the winner, his 10th league goal of the season on match day nine and sending fans into raptures in the Spanish capital. He has done it time and time again this season, carrying his teammates on his back if needs be, turning a game with his individual brilliance and a seemingly insatiable appetite for goals. He has carried his side all the way to the top of the league in joint place with Barcelona on 25 points from a possible 27 and his name is being touted as a possible FIFA Ballon d’Or winner. But what is most astonishing about the man in question, is that he does not play decked in white, he plies his trade for the other team in the city, Atlético … [Read more...] about La Liga: Falcao firepower lets Atlético dream
La Liga: Early-season form leaves Málaga relishing Milan visit
“There is nothing that can distract us,” said Manuel Pellegrini before the weekend’s liga game, reassuring fans that his side would be focusing solely on the visit of Real Valladolid to La Rosaleda and not the impending visit of AC Milan in the Champions League in midweek. But the coach's words almost fell on deaf ears as Los Boquerones found themselves in danger of dropping points until the final minutes of the match. They got off to a bad start when Valladolid’s Manucho Gonçalves fired the visitors into a surprising lead just nine minutes in, but midfielder Francisco Román “Isco” Alarcón levelled the scores eight minutes before the break with an accurate low finish from an Eliseu … [Read more...] about La Liga: Early-season form leaves Málaga relishing Milan visit
La Liga: Higuaín proves his worth once again
The scrawny 19-year-old with the big hair salvaged the ball from the sidelines when 85,000 others in the stadium thought it had gone out of play, played a nice one-two with José Antonio Reyes and slotted the ball into the back of the net to send the fans wild. It was a last minute winner against RCD Espanyol which kept his side in the running for the Liga title, which they would go on to win a few weeks later. The ecstatic Argentine threw his shirt in the air, Iker Casillas ran the length of the pitch to join in the celebrations, Fabio Cannavaro waved the corner flag aloft and Ruud Van Nistelrooy held the discarded shirt up to the crowd as if to announce it: Gonzalo Higuaín had … [Read more...] about La Liga: Higuaín proves his worth once again
La Liga: Sevilla’s woes leave Marcelino high and dry
Only a week ago, Sevilla Sporting Director Ramón Rodríguez Monchi declared full confidence in his coach Marcelino García Toral. His faith only lasted a week, however, with a 2-1 home defeat to Villarreal proving the final nail in the coffin. Still believing he could turn the team’s fortunes around, the coach refused to quit on Sunday evening but the decision was taken out of his hands. Following an emergency meeting with soon-to-be-incarcerated club president José María del Nido and Monchi on Monday morning, he was given his marching orders. Only in the job since the summer of 2011, he was brought in to replace Gregorio Manzano – who was himself recently dismissed by Atlético Madrid – … [Read more...] about La Liga: Sevilla’s woes leave Marcelino high and dry
La Liga: Sevilla and Betis bury the hatchet as the Andalusia derby returns
Long before Real Madrid’s Pepe stamped on Lionel Messi’s hand and José Mourinho poked his finger into the eye of Barça’s Tito Vilanova, a bottle was thrown from the stands of the Ruiz de Lopera stadium which would knock Juande Ramos – then Sevilla manager – unconscious. It was to mark the height of the rivalry between Sevilla and Betis in recent times, when weeks of growing tension between the two sides finally came to a head at the latter’s stadium during a Copa del Rey clash. El derbi sevillano has always divided the Andalusian city but never more so than in 2007. Less than a month before the Ramos incident, a Liga clash also took an unsavoury turn, but this time not on the pitch or … [Read more...] about La Liga: Sevilla and Betis bury the hatchet as the Andalusia derby returns