Spanish La Liga 2011, Week 12: Real Madrid Barely Hold On, Beat Valencia 3-2

No one is sure exactly why this happened--as I said before, Granada, the home side, was leading 2-1 after a brilliant goal from Martins (dedicated to his sick son Gustavo). As of 11:45 CET, a 15 year-old had been arrested, but no motive had been released.

via www.as.com

The trip to the dressing rooms allowed both teams to catch their breath, and Sevilla came out firing at the beginning of the second half: first Alvaro Negredo, then Jesus Navas missed chances, but slowly the game began to shift to Athletic’s favor. Then, in the 70th minute, Sevilla defender Spahic had a terrible time getting the ball out of los rojiblancos’ defensive zone, and Iker Muniain collected the ball and slotted a long ball through; first, Javi Varas couldn’t clear well, and the ball fell to De Marcos, who slotted the ball home. A terrible error from a normally solid team.

Ironically, the goal came only minutes after Athletic missed one of the best chances I’ve ever seen, as Fernando Llorente dribbled past a diving Varas, slotted the ball back to Muniain, whose shot on an open goal bounced off Escudé who was running back to help.

Casual fans and diehards alike can only hope to see more of this type of play in the next half. Game on!

Soldado grabbed his third goal in spectacular fashion in the ninetieth minute only to be ruled offside. A late free kick say Diego Alves in Casillas’s penalty area in the final minute of the four added on, and only a spectacular save and the crossbar stopped the ball from finding the back of the net. Seconds later and an inbound shot struck a still-prone Alonso on the arm before bouncing away to safety, causing the Valencia players to go berserk demanding a penalty. None was forthcoming, the corner was cleared, and Real Madrid had notched their 11th straight victory in all competitions. They’ve had easier wins.

Oh, wait, that’s not right. Actually, a fantastic-looking Barcelona side manhandled a just truly awful Zaragoza side, scoring at will, and even--though they didn’t need it--making the most of a series of idiotic defensive errors. Out of the four goals Barça scored, three of them came from balls into attackers that were completely undefended. Granted, the two in the second half were both semi-accidental lucky bounces, but still, Zaragoza was just terrible on defense.

But these were not lucky goals; rather, they were goals that a good, attacking team will get on good days. They were well-deserved, and Barcelona walked away just winners.

Valencia Lineup (4-2-3-1): Alves; Mathieu, Rami, Ruiz, Miguel; Albelda, Costa; Feghouli, Parejo, Alba; Soldado

Substitutes: Barraga, Aduriz, Pablo, Topal, Piatti, Guaita, Jonas

In keeping with their style, Barcelona grabbed control of the ball early and never let it go, dominating possession throughout the half. At one point, they were leading Zaragoza 11-1 in shots on target, but had only one goal to show for it--Gerard Piqué‘s uncontested header off of a Xavi free kick in the 18th minute. But Leo Messi snagged a goal before halftime to shut the door on Zaragoza; and that was pretty much that.

Other than the two goals--actually, scratch that, the two goals were classic Barça, with the second coming on a questionably-offside-but-probably-not brilliant through ball from Cesc--the half was vintage Barcelona, as Pep’s boys dominated almost every aspect of the game. We’ll see if this continues in the second half. Well, actually, it’s going to continue. Who am I kidding.