Spanish La Liga, Round 21: Real Madrid Fall, Give Barcelona Commanding Lead Atop La Liga

Espanyol have disappeared as an attacking force in this second half, with Borja Valero and Bruno making sure Villarreal keep hold of the ball and create the clearer goalscoring opportunities. The away back four have dropped deeper to stop Sergio Garcia from stealing in, while Rossi and Marco Ruben continue to cause problems for the Espanyol defence.

Carlos Kameni has already saved his side from going 0-2 down, saving well from Marios thunderbolt of a shot, while Guiseppe Rossi almost got his second with a curling strike that Kameni fingertipped onto the top of the crossbar. Espanyol really need to get Verdu and Callejon on the ball, while Luis Garcia needs to awake from his slumber to help out and isolated Sergio Garcia in attack.

Just when it looked as if the first half would end goalless, Guiseppe Rossi conjured up a magical goal that gives his side a halftime lead. The match has been played out at a frenetic pace, with both teams displaying the sort of quality that has seen them fight it out at the top of La Liga. With players like Valero, Cani, Javi Marquez and Jose Callejon on the pitch, you are guaranteed quality football.

Sergio Garcia has looked dangerous for Espanyol, his pace troubling Marchena and Gonzalo, but his lack of finishing instinct has been shown up by the little man at the other end of the field. I said Guiseppe Rossi was always capable of nicking a goal or two, but what a goal he has nicked tonight.

What a vibrant opening twenty minutes to this match, the only mystery is how it is still goalless. Javi Marquez is controlling the match from the middle, displaying his impressive passing repertoire, but the truth is both sides have an enormous amount of quality in midfield. Borja Valero and Cani both look dangerous for Villarreal, while Guiseppe Rossi is always capable of nicking a goal or two.

Sergio Garcia has started upfront for Espanyol as Pochettino reverts to a 4-5-1, and the Catalan strikers pace is causing Villarreal a huge amount of problems. Already he has been sent one-one-one against Diego Lopez, and while the keeper has got the better of the striker so far, one chance a couple of minutes ago saw Sergio Garcia send a superb strike against the post from just outside the area.

Two matches against sides in the bottom four, and two slip ups. Real Madrid were desparate to host Barcelona in the second clasico of the season within a victory of overtaking them at the top. Now they find themselves seven points behind Peps dream team, and with Mourinhos side needing Barca to lose a couple of matches between now and the end of the season, their title hopes appear to have been crushed in Pamplona.

With Cristiano Ronaldo off-colour, Xabi Alonso on the bench suffering from a fever (not an injury as first thought) and an Osasuna crowd baying for blood, this was never going to a be a pretty match. Indeed the match was characterised by niggly fouls, plenty of yellow cards and mini-battles all over the park.

Could Javier Camuñas have just handed Barcelona the league title? Because he’s just put Osasuna ahead with a delightful goal that saw the full-back chip the ball over Casillas after being put through by a flick from Aranda, the ball clipping the inside of the post before nestling in the net to send the home crowd wild. The Real Madrid players initially wanted the linesman to flag for offside but replays showed that Sergio Ramos was keeping him onside.

Massive test now for Real Madrid and Jose Mourinho has responded with an audacious triple change. Xabi Alonso, Kaká and Adebayor have all come on for Lass Diarra, angel Di Maria and Raul Albiol. That means Real Madrid will switch to a risky three-man defence and a 3-5-2 formation, Adebayor partnering Benzema upfront. Personally I’ve always seen Benzema as a second striker, so I expect the change to do the striker the world of good.

Because right now this is exactly what this football match has become. An out and out battle which ended with a heated exchange between Cristiano Ronaldo and Walter Pandiani. Cristianos a big guy, but if there is one man in Spanish football that I most definitely wouldn’t mess with, it’s Walter ‘The Hammer’ Pandiani.

No real pattern to this match as yet, just two teams intent on taking lumps out of each other, with Osasuna the main culprits. Cristiano has been the focal point of their agression, on the receiving end of some over-zealous tackles as well as the ire of the home crowd.

Just before the stroke of halftime, Athletic Bilbao’s Gaizka Toquero has scored to give the visitors a one goal advantage to go with their one man advantage. Atletico Madrid appear to be in a world of trouble, especially since their world class strikers can’t finish to save their lives. Sergio Aguero missed a wide open header early in the half, while Diego Forlan missed an absolute sitter on a breakaway just seconds before Toquero put Bilbao ahead.

Atletico are down to 10 men thanks to Luis Perea, who got sent off for a foul in the box near the end of the half. It was a silly challenge from Parea, but Fernando Llorente went down very easily and the referee was harsh to show Perea a red. Fortunately, a bit of justice was served when Llorente missed his penalty, but there’s no undoing a red card.

Luis Perea has been shown a straight red card for Atletico Madrid after committing a foul in the box, but Athletic Bilbao have failed to capitalize and the score remains at 0-0 in Madrid. Fernando Llorente, linked to Tottenham Hotspur by the January transfer rumor mill, was the man who stepped up to the spot. He missed his penalty wide left.

This was not the first bad miss of the day, and it would not be the last. Both Sergio Aguero and Diego Forlan have had terrible misses. It’s really been a comedy of errors throughout the first half, with both teams missing lots of makable chances. The defending has been poor, and the finishing has been worse.

Lassad Nouioui scored a stunner in the 15th minute of Deportivo La Coruña’s match against Sevilla, and that would be it for the action in the first half. To be honest, it was dire. There wasn’t much good football or entertainment value in the first half, period. It looked like boring, boring Depor were going to live up to their nickname and subject us to another 90 minutes of rubbish.

Oh, how wrong we would all turn out to be.

Incredibly, Sevilla have scored their third goal in the 22 minutes since they were reduced to 10 men, which is exactly three more goals than they were able to score with 11. Alvaro Negredo has picked up a brace, and his second goal was not the least bit lucky, unlike the first one. No, this one was all about his skill.

Substitute Didier Zokora, just minutes after coming onto the pitch, provided Negredo with the assist. Popping up a high ball to Negredo in the box, Zokora put it in a spot where it was easy for Negredo to take it down with his chest. He did so brilliantly, touching it right into the path of his left foot. From a narrow angle, he hit a great low shot past Aranzubia into the back of the net. The left footed strike was hit with incredible precision and power, and the Depor keeper had little chance.

After 74 minutes, 10 man Sevilla are somehow level. It took getting a man sent off for them to be able to score, but goals are goals and if they are able to come away with a positive result, it won’t matter that they went about it in an absurd, roundabout way.

The chance was created off of a Luis Fabiano free kick, but it should have ended when the ball hit Daniel Ananzubia’s gloves. Fabiano’s free kick was well taken, but the Depor keeper did well to get down and get his hands on the ball. Unfortunately for Depor, the ball did not stay in his hands. Ananzubia juggled the ball and it drifted away, into the path of Julien Escude. The Frenchman lost his marker and tapped the ball into the back of the net.

Sevilla appeared to be all but dead in the water after Andres Palop’s 57th minute red card and Lassad Nouioui’s 61st minute brace, but they’ve been able to pull back a goal on Deportivo La Coruña to bring the possibility of points back into the picture.

It was a bit of a fortunate goal, with the ball bouncing off the head of...someone and falling to Negredo. It was a bit of a cluster, with Luis Fabiano involved, but whoever headed the ball into the path of Negredo knew nothing about it. The Sevilla striker pounced and finished well, bringing the scoreline back to 2-1 in favor of Depor and putting Sevilla back into the game.

It’s gone from bad to worse for Sevilla, who have completely collapsed tonight against Deportivo La Coruña. Lassad Nouioui’s 15th minute stunner was a bad enough happening for a side who started a surpisingly defensive lineup, but it’s all gone pear shaped for them in the second half with a red card and another goal.

Sevilla goalkeeper Andres Palop picked up an incredibly silly straight red card in the 57th minute for handling the ball outside of the box, and that was just the start of Sevilla’s problems. It’s bad enough for your goalkeeper to get sent off for a terrible lapse of judgment, but Palop’s red has other consequences. The keeper will now miss Sevilla’s semifinal match in Copa Del Rey.

Deportivo La Coruña’s Lassad Nouioui hit a superb goal in the 15th minute of their game against Sevilla, but to be honest, it was the only real moment of quality for either team in the first half of the game.

Has anyone else seen the Family Guy episode where Brian is explaining The Blair Witch Project to a blind person?

Barcelona kicks off against Hercules from Alacante at 2 pm ET on Saturday, but their match is hardly the highlight of this week’s La Liga action. Usually, all eyes are on Barcelona and Real Madrid in La Liga, but there are two distinctly more interesting matches on the fixture list this week.

Of course, we’ll still be covering Barcelona and Real Madrid live. The Blaugranes kick off our coverage on Saturday at 2 pm ET in their match against Hercules. Real Madrid are playing Osasuna away, and that match takes place at 1 pm ET on Sunday.