Spanish La Liga, Week 8: Brilliant Real Madrid Destroy Malaga, Barcelona Held By Legendary Javi Varas Performance

The defense in front of him played well, but with an average keeper behind them, Barcelona probably would have score three or four. The Blaugranas had plenty of clear cut chances in the beginning 60 minutes of the game, but the draw looked highly likely until stoppage time. Then, things went a bit crazy.

Varas brilliantly saved Messi’s penalty, but that wasn’t the end of the attacks. In the 96th minute, Julien Escuede took down Pedro just outside of the penalty area, resulting in a free kick. Escuede felt that Pedro dived and ran to the official to argue, along with Fernando Navarro. This, of course, constituted dissent. Both players were shown yellow cards, Navarro his second. Messi’s ensuing free kick was blocked and the final whistle blew, giving Sevilla an improbable point.

For more on the Blaugranas, check out Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes. We’ll have live coverage all of the action from Spain in our La Liga Week 8 StoryStream. For more on the entire world of footy, head over to SB Nation Soccer.

For more on the Blaugranas, check out Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes. We’ll have live coverage all of the action from Spain in our La Liga Week 8 StoryStream. For more on the entire world of footy, head over to SB Nation Soccer.

For more on Los Merengues, check out Real Madrid blog Managing Madrid. We’ll have live coverage of all of the action in Spain this week in our La Liga Week 8 StoryStream. For more on the entire world of footy, head over to SB Nation Soccer.

FC Barcelona Starting Lineup (4-3-3): Valdes; Alves, Mascherano, Abidal, Adriano; Xavi, Thiago, Keita; Iniesta, Villa, Messi

Sevilla FC Starting Lineup (4-2-3-1): Javi Varas; Cáceres, Fazio, Escudé, Navarro; Medel, Campaña; Navas, Trochowski, Armenteros; Manu

Hat tricks are always impressive, but backheel volleys to complete the hat trick? Well, that’s just incredible. Cristiano Ronaldo, you sir are incredible. This is just wow. Facing away from goal when the ball is knocked back to him isn’t a problem because he has the backheel volley in his bag of tricks. Seriously, who does that? Isn’t there some rule against that? Someone consult the rulebook immediately because this just isn’t fair.

Oh yeah, and he scored his three goals in a 14 minute span. Seriously, someone find a rulebook immediately. There has to be something in there about this. There has to.

For more on Los Merengues, check out Real Madrid blog Managing Madrid. We’ll have live coverage of all of the action in Spain this week in our La Liga Week 8 StoryStream. For more on the entire world of footy, head over to SB Nation Soccer.

For more on Los Merengues, check out Real Madrid blog Managing Madrid. We’ll have live coverage of all of the action in Spain this week in our La Liga Week 8 StoryStream. For more on the entire world of footy, head over to SB Nation Soccer.

For more on Los Merengues, check out Real Madrid blog Managing Madrid. We’ll have live coverage of all of the action in Spain this week in our La Liga Week 8 StoryStream. For more on the entire world of footy, head over to SB Nation Soccer.

Angel di Maria provided a brilliant assist, but Kaka was important in the creation of the goal despite never touching the ball. Di Maria looked like he might be trying to find Kaka when he played a through ball into the box from the right side of midfield, but the Brazilian international was offside at the time. The experienced Kaka recognized his position and the position of his teammates and left the ball for Gonzalo Higuain, who rounded Ruben before placing the ball into the back of the net.

For more on Los Merengues, check out Real Madrid blog Managing Madrid. We’ll have live coverage of all of the action in Spain this week in our La Liga Week 8 StoryStream. For more on the entire world of footy, head over to SB Nation Soccer.

Malaga lineup (4-2-3-1): Ruben; Eliseu, Mathijsen, Demichelis, Gamez; Toulalan, Apoño; Isco, Cazorla, Joaquin; Rondon

Real Madrid lineup (4-2-3-1): Casillas; Marcelo, Pepe, Ramos, Arbeloa; Alonso, Khedira; Ronaldo, Kaka, Di Maria; Higuain

Both teams are undefeated in La Liga thus far, and Sevilla can get a big leg-up on their competition for Champions League places if they can somehow manage to just nick a point at the Camp Nou.

Game Date/Time: Saturday, October 22, 4:00 pm ET (10:00 pm local)

Jose Mourinho’s men have encountered plenty of problems this season, but they’re in excellent form with five straight wins in all competitions. With Kaka and Mesut Özil both fit and in good form, Mourinho’s biggest problem is figuring out who to play or how to play both of them, an excellent problem to have.

Malaga have the firepower to score on Los Merengues at home, but their defense is questionable at best. Expect goals galore in this fixture, but expect more of them to come from Real Madrid.

18:00 CET (12:00 PM EST)

It’s funny that after all that preamble, this is the first game to pop up. Oh, well.