03.10.2011 12:42
Spanish League Round Up Week 6
Nick Bedson
Barça became the fifth team to head the La Liga over the weekend after a round of games that saw Betis start on top before Valencia, Malaga and then Llevant momentarily occupied first place in the table.
Image: UD Llevant.
Valencia beat Granada on Saturday evening to move a point ahead of Betis who began the weekend on
top, before Malaga overtook them with a 3-2 win over Getafe to ensure they were in top spot
overnight. On Sunday evening, Llevant then wrecked Betis’ hopes of holding on to first place
with a 0-1 win that took them a point ahead of Malaga, but Barça’s victory over Sporting
ensured that their better goal difference takes them ahead of Llevant going into the international
break.
Narrow win for Valencia
Sergio Canales scored his first league goal for Valencia to give them a 1-0 win over Granada
with a great strike from outside the box after just 4 minutes, but the home team were unable to add
to that goal and Granada had the chances to sneak a draw late on. Just after the Valencia game
finished, Malaga kicked off against Getafe in La Rosaleda, knowing a win could also take them top,
but after a goalless first half, it was Pedro Leon who opened the scoring for Getafe. Van Nistelroy
equalised for Malaga before Miku put away a cross with what appeared to be his hand for a
controversial second for the visitors. In a frantic last few minutes, Maresca equalised and in
injury time with almost the last kick of the game, Baptista scored a spectacular overhead volley to
make it 3-2 and leave Malaga on top for 24 hours at least.
Llevant go top!
Llevant put in a great defensive performance to keep out Betis on Seville on Sunday evening,
grabbing the only goal of the game on 32 minutes (Junalu) to inflict a second successive defeat on
Pepe Mel’s team, maintain their own unbeaten record and leapfrog ahead of Malaga. Llevant may
have scored just 8 goals –compared to Barça’s 23, but they have actually conceded just
three –one less than Guardiola’s team and together with Seville, they have the best
defensive record of the league.
Madrid move into third
Real Madrid also head Malaga in the table, though only on goal difference, and sit
in third- a point behind Barça- following their 0-4 win against Espanyol on Sunday night. Gonzalo
Higuain scored a hat trick for Mourinho’s team, with ex-Espanyol man Jose Callejon getting
the other. With Malaga in fourth and Valencia in fifth on, Seville sit sixth –still unbeaten
– a point behind on 12 points, ahead of Betis on goal difference, after their goalless draw
at Atletico Madrid. Manzano’s men head the rest of the teams behind the leading group, four
points behind Betis and one ahead of Mallorca and Osasuna, who drew 2-2 in Pamplona, as well as
Real Sociedad.
Basque derby goes Bilbao’s way
Real lost the Basque derby 1-2 against Bilbao, with Fernado Llorente getting both the
visitors’ goals to give Bielsa his first league win at the helm and take them out of the
bottom three –places occupied by Sporting, who have just one point, Granada and Racing
Santander, who drew 1-1 with Rayo, for whom Raul Tamudo bagged his 138rd career league goal.