Football Update: Spanish La Liga Round-up – Week 15 (Part 1)
With the 16th week starting in the Spanish La Liga, let us take a look back at what happened during the last weekend. The teams that were trying to keep up with the mighty Barcelona and the second placed Real Madrid, again slipped up as Villarreal,
Espanyol and Valencia all failed to win. However, the bottom of the table sides Almeria and Racing got great wins to take their step towards the non relegation zone.
The Los Blancos had to face the bottom club Real Zaragoza and Jose Mourinho’s men were victorious with a two goal margin. The final score line was 1-3 with Mesut Ozil, Angel Di Maria and Cristiano Ronaldo scoring the three goals. The former Manchester United
man Cristiano Ronaldo got his 18th goal of the season and helped his team remain in the title race with only two points behind Barcelona. The Catalan Giants are now leading Villarreal with 10 points and Valencia with 15.
Villarreal were to face Getafe on Saturday but after facing defeat against the mid-table club, Espanyol had the opportunity to move into third play as they were to face Athletic Bilbao. Despite the fact that Pablo Daniel Osvaldo took the Barcelona side forward,
they could simply not keep their one goal lead throughout the game. Later, it was the Athletic Bilbao goal scoring sensation Fernando Llorente who equalized and then it was David Lopez who gave them the win.
The Espanyol boss Mauricio Pochettino was very shocked after the defeat. The Argentinean coach said that his side played extraordinary football and it is just incredible that they could not win the three points. However, he knew that the top of the table
side Barca were to be his next opponents and he gave the local city opponents a clear message that his side would come out even stronger after the defeat. He said:
“This defeat won’t damage our morale; in fact, we will come out of it even stronger”.
With Espanyol failing to take the three points that they deserved, it was Valencia’s turn to face Osasuna. Valencia had a good opportunity to fly back to the fourth spot but they were held by Osasuna with a 3-3 draw. This season’s UEFA Champions League participants
were in good control of the game as the first half ended. Roberto Soldado, Marius Stankavicius and Aritz Arduriz managed to score three goals to make the score line 3-1 in the first half. However, Osasuna fought back the two goal lead to take a point during
the second half. Goals from Miguel Flano and Carlos Aranda helped their side get the point that they really needed to solidify their position in the mid-table of the Spanish La Liga.
The Madrid side Atletico Madrid managed to move up, only two points behind Valencia as they defeated Deportivo 2-0 in their home ground. The in-form Argentinean striker Sergio Aguero was the one who took a stand and scored the much-needed two goals. However,
with Getafe defeating Villarreal in a shocking result, they managed to sit seventh – on level terms with Atletico Madrid.
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