20.11.2010 10:30
Spanish League Preview Week 12
Nick Bedson
Barca’s game in Almeria on Saturday night is sandwiched between two mouth watering games, with third and fourth meeting in Mestalla at six and Madrid taking on Bilbao in the Bernabeu at ten o’clock.
There’s also plenty of interest in the bottom half, with Deportivo and Malaga, Llevante and
Racing and Osasuna and Sporting all facing each other in what could prove to be vital games come
the end of the season. Zaragoza’s new boss Javier Aguirre will have to wait till Monday for
his first game in charge when his team travel to Getafe.
Battle for third place at El Madrigal
Valencia’s fans will be hoping that their win last week has put an end to a terrible
run of results and they will have the chance to re-establish themselves in third spot if they can
beat Villarreal at El Madrigal in Saturday’s opener. Emery is sweating on the fitness of
Cesar, Mata and Mathieu, whilst Albelda is suspended and definitely misses the game. In contrast,
Villarreal have a full squad and with five wins out of five and just a single goal conceded at home
so far this season, they will be confident of seeing off one of their main rivals in the fight to
challenge the big two.
Bilbao visit the Bernabeu
Real Madrid also have a 100% home record this season, which will no doubt be put to the test
a week before El Classico by the visit of Athletic Bilbao, who despite not winning at the Bernabeu
since 2006, always pose a threat with their bustling direct style and with Llorente seemingly
scoring at will and their morale still high from last week’s heroics against Almeria the
Basques will be hoping to upset the form book - Bilbao have lost their last three away games
– by taking something away from the Spanish capital.
Espanyol aim to extend 100% record
Espanyol are the other La Liga team who’ve won every game at home this season and on
Sunday they may have the chance to get back into the top four if they can extend that record
against Hercules, who of course already know what it is to win in Barcelona this season! Seville
are a point behind Espanyol on 19 and could also be back in the Champions League spots if they beat
Mallorca at the Sanchez Pijuan and strech their run of four wins in all competitions since they
were hammered at the Nou Camp. Manzano will be without the injured Capel, but Palop returns in
goal. Mallorca have beaten Valencia and drawn with Barça and Madrid this season and their winger
Emilio Nsue warned Seville: “we always do well against the big boys and with our style of
play I think we will hurt Seville”.
Tamudo warns Atletico
Atletico Madrid(17 points) and Real Sociedad(16) could take advantage of any slip up by
Espanyol or Seville and the two meet at Anoeta on Sunday night. Ex Espanyol captain Raul Tamudo is
fit again and available for Real and he warned Atletico that “if they want to win here,
they’ll have to do a lot of running and work really hard. Forlan and Kun were back on target
last week, but our defenders are ready for them”.
Deportivo kick off tough three game run
Deportivo are unbeaten in their last five games in all competitions and the 7 points
they’ve taken from their last three league games have hauled them up out of the relegation
places. Over the next three weeks they face Malaga, Racing and Hercules in three games that could
define the rest of their season and on Sunday they kick off against Pellegrini’s Malaga at
the Riazor and veteran defender Manel Pablo explained: “we’ve got our confidence back
and everything is going better, but we have to keep taking points because we are still in the
danger zone –these home games are important to make up the points we dropped earlier in the
season”.
Points will also be at a premium in the game between second from bottom Levante and Racing
Santander, whose boss Miguel Angel Portugal has demanded his players take all six points from the
visit to Valencia and next week’s game against Deportivo. Finally, eighth placed Osasuna, who
are still unbeaten in Pamplona this season, will look to take the points against fourth from bottom
Sporting and put some space between themselves and the teams below them ahead of a tough run of
games that sees them visit Bilbao and Valencia and receive the visit of Barça.