La Liga Saturday, Matchday 14: Atletico Madrid Suffer Upset Loss, Barcelona Win 3-0, Real Defeat Valencia 2-0

Real Sociedad 2 – 0 Athletic Bilbao

Real Sociedad made their long-awaited jump back into La Liga for nights like this. After a number of seasons ploughing their way in La Segunda, they’ve wasted no time at all in establishing themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the top flight. Tonight they outplayed Athletic Bilbao in all areas of the pitch, with Xabi Prieto putting in a fine shift in midfield, scoring Reals first from the spot after San Jose had handled in the box.

If Real Madrid were looking for the perfect tonic after Mondays thrashing at the hands of Barcelona, they found it against a dogged Valencia. Cristiano Ronaldo was the hero once more as his clinical double was enough to see Madrid past a Valencia side that gave as much as they got in an absorbing encounter at the Santiago Bernabeu.

As expected, Unai Emery opted for a more defence-minded formation, placing Maduro, Albelda and Tino Costa in the centre of the park. And the midfield threesome did their job admirably in a hard-fought opening 45 minutes as Real Madrid struggled to find any fluency in attack. Cristiano Ronaldo flitted in and out of the match, while Mesut Ozil and Angel Di Maria laboured to little effect either side of the Portuguese wizard.

Lionel Messi has put on an absolute masterclass at Estadio Reyno de Navarra, directly involving himself in all three of Barcelona’s goals in every way imaginable, turning in what can only be described as a complete performance. He played a great through ball to assist on Pedro’s opener, finished off a great assist by Xavi to score Barcelona’s second, and both drew and converted a penalty kick at the end of the game to give himself two goals and one assist on the stat sheet, two assists in reality, on three Barcelona goals.

It was an impressive performance for Barca coming off the back of an emotional win over Real Madrid in El Clasico, as well as horrific travel arrangements that saw them arrive late at the stadium. Due to an air traffic controllers strike, Barcelona could not fly to Pamplona and instead were forced to take a train and a bus. The trip took them five hours and they arrived at the stadium at 8 pm local time, when the game was scheduled to kick off. The league would not let the sides postpone the match, nor did Osasuna want to, and instead the game was started 50 minutes late. The Blaugranes started slowly, but eventually found their stride. Pedro and Messi combined for the opener in the 26th minute and it was all Barcelona from there.

Just like the first goal, Barca score like only Barca can. They’ve made it 2-0 in Pamplona after 65 minutes, thanks to David Villa and Lionel Messi. They create and score goals that no one else in the world can create and score, and yet they make it look so easy.

It was a great assist by Villa and a classic Messi goal. From a surprisingly deep position in midfield, Villa hit an insane low through ball past the Osasuna defense. Messi, since he’s secretly the Energizer Bunny, bursts after the ball, surges past his defenders, and hits a near post shot into the back of the net and a seemingly impossible angle. Of course, the through ball, run, and finish were almost impossible for mortal beings from planet earth. Obviously, Villa and Messi do not fall into that category. 2-0 Barcelona, game over.

During the beginning of their match against Osasuna, Barcelona appeared to be suffering a bit of a hangover. Whether it was more from their win over Real Madrid in El Clasico or from their long day of traveling is hard to tell, but they appeared to be in a bit of a funk regardless. Early on in the match, Osasuna were denied what appeared to be a clear penalty. Barcelona broke out of their funk in true Barcelona style, though, as Messi and Pedro created a fantastic goal.

A description of the goal is almost pointless for those of you that are familiar with the way Barca play, as I’m sure you’re already imagining exactly what happened in your mind. Messi beat a man, dribbled forward in the center of the pitch, played a perfectly weighted through ball on the ground, and Pedro smacked it low, first time, into the back of the net at the far post. After 26 minutes of mostly sleepy play, the Blaugranes were ahead in the blink of an eye. It was typical Barca, and it has awoken the side and silenced the crowd. In the short time it took me to write this, Barcelona have already created two more great chances. There are likely more goals to come in Pamplona.

At the last minute before Barcelona were due to travel to Pamplona to face Osasuna, an air traffic controllers strike altered the arrangements of the Blaugranes (although they’re wearing mint green tonight). Barcelona believed that the match would be delayed until tomorrow as a result, but both Osasuna and La Liga informed them that the match had to be played today.

As a result, Barcelona hopped between buses and trains to make the long five hour journey up to the northern part of the country. They arrived at the Reyno de Navarra at 8 pm local time, which was when the match was scheduled to kick off. Barcelona were given time to dress and warm up, and the match has finally kicked off at 8:50 local time, 50 minutes late.

Atletico Madrid have turned in a few poor performances this season in La Liga, but nowhere near the magnitude of tonight’s showing against Levante. The entire midfield was absent for the visitors and the superstar strikers, Diego Forlan and Sergio Aguero, completely checked out when Levante went up 2-0. With the way their teammates were playing, who could blame them? In fact, in the first half, Diego Forlan might have been the only player in an Atleti shirt worth of a rating better than five out of ten.

The first goal came only three minutes in off of a corner kick. Rubén Suárez hit a spectacular overhead cross towards a running Victoriano Nano, who was completely unmarked. All he had to do to score was tap the ball with his head. Levante were up 1-0, and Atleti had to change their strategy right away. A team whose most brilliant attacking football comes off the counter attack would now have to chase the game against a team perfectly willing to sit back with a lead.

Osasuna vs Barcelona

It’s not going to be easy for Pep Guardiola, but somehow he will have to try and get his players back down to planet earth after their ‘perfect’ performance on Monday against Real Madrid. Osasuna lie in wait, and although the match is in danger of being cancelled due to the air traffic control strike that started last night, the pitch will at least be playable after the blanket of snow it receieved yesterday. Barcelona have stuck five or more goals past Real Madrid five times in their history, and apart from one exception in the 1970s, they have gone on to lose the following match.