LaLiga
RCD Espanyol – FC Barcelona: Stellar Messi leads Barcelona to crush Espanyol in tactical battle of pressing systems and counterattacks (0-4)
An initially conservative Espanyol changed their approach after Messi’s first brilliant free kick goal. However, Barcelona’s fire power of Suárez, Dembélé and a stellar Messi still
Deportivo Alavés – Sevilla FC: Sarabia and Promes turn around Sevilla’s fortunes against rock-solid Alavés (1-1)
Alavés dominated the first half with an uncharacteristic pressing scheme on Sevilla’s midfielders, effectively disconnecting Sevilla’s midfield from their attack. During the second half, Sevilla substitutes
Real Madrid – Valencia: Valencia Attempt Second Half Comeback But Can’t Overcome Superior Madrid (2-0)
Real Madrid calmly gained an advantage over a listless Valencia side, before securing the result on the counter-attack when Valencia decided to become more proactive. Tactical
Real Sociedad – Celta de Vigo: Excellent pressing and defensive organization yields three points for Sociedad (2-1)
Real Sociedad won their first home match of the season scoring two goals against a passive Celta defense. Sociedad were strong in their pressing and prevented
Atlético Madrid – FC Barcelona: An injury-time Dembélé goal settles stalemate between two conservative teams (1-1)
Ernesto Valverde revisited last season’s 4-3-1-2 midfield diamond with four central midfielders, but it was not enough to create good chances against a solid Atlético wall.
SD Eibar – Real Madrid: Solari suffers first defeat as Real Madrid manager against brilliant Eibar (3-0)
Santiago Solari’s perfect start as Real Madrid manager was brought to an end by a passionate and intense performance from Eibar. Problems from the Lopetegui era
Celta de Vigo – Real Madrid: Solari’s Run Continues With Hectic Victory Over Ultra-Physical Celta (2-4)
Celta de Vigo came out to play with one mission in mind – injure as many Real Madrid players as possible. Suffice to say, they succeeded,
Atlético Madrid – Athletic Club: Atlético come back miraculously in surprisingly high-scoring game between lackluster offenses (3-2)
An injured Diego Godín scored an injury time header to complete Atlético’s comeback against Athletic Club. Do not be fooled by the result of this game,
Levante superior for most of the game but unable to stop Real Sociedad in the end (1-3)
Real Sociedad are back to winning ways after a game where they were awful for seventy minutes before Garitano’s astute adjustments helped them to an unexpected
Real Sociedad – Sevilla FC: Despite Januzaj, this was a bad game (0-0)
What do you get if you have two teams who actually don’t like having the ball? You get a lot of bad passes, unnecessary lost possession