FCBARCELONA.CAT

11.09.2009 11:37

Spanish League Preview – Week 2

After the international break, the Spanish League is again up and running this weekend, with a couple of Barca’s main challengers desperately needing to up their game and Espanyol inaugurating their new stadium the highlights of the fixtures.

Seville and Athletico Madrid in need of points

Seville have been widely tipped to run the big two close this season, but they got off to bad start losing at Valencia a fortnight ago and will hope for a better showing at home to Zaragoza. Keeper Andres Palop insists: “we will be in the title fight”, but admits that: “we need to perform in front of our own fans to get rid of the poor image we gave in Mestalla”.

Another team with hopes of a successful push for the title, Athletico Madrid, were roundly beaten at Malaga in their opening game and will be wanting to give a much improved performance in their debut home match of the campaign against Racing, who also lost their opening game, 1-4 to Getafe.

First League game at Cornella

Espanyol face Real Madrid in their opening league game at their new stadium in Cornella and will be able to welcome back captain Ivan de la Peña who missed the opening week defeat in Bilbao. Madrid made a less than convincing start to their new galacticos era, but should be at full strength for the game. Both teams will observe a minute’s silence before the game in honour of Espanyol’s ex-captain Dani Jarque.

Malaga and Mallorca look to build on good starts

Malaga keeper Gustav Munua makes his return to La Coruña where he spent 6 years with Deportivo, as Malaga look to build on their great opening day start. Deportivo were a touch unlucky to go down to Madrid and must have been lifted by the performance of veteran Juan Carlos Valeron at the Bernabeu. Mallorca also got off to a winning start, but a visit to Villarreal this weekend could well be a different prospect than their dispatching of newly promoted Jerez a fortnight ago.

n other games, the Basque teams Osasuna and Bilbao both visit newly promoted clubs, Bilbao going down to Jerez and Camacho’s team flying out to Tenerife, Sporting Gijon are at home to Almeria and Valladolid entertain Valencia.