Spanish La Liga: Real Madrid Win Big, Barcelona Grind Out Win In The Second Half

Barcelona’s fans might be slightly concerned with the difficulty they’ve had in La Liga in the last two weeks, but regardless, they were able to squeak out all three points against Almeria today, defeating them 3-1 in a wild second half. it was a typical Barcelona game, as they had 75 percent of the possession, but it took them until well into the second half to take a lead.

The first half ended scoreless, and the second half started out in Almeria’s favor, at least in the way that smaller teams can have things go in their favor against Barcelona. Miguel Corona scored very much against the run of play in the 50th minute, and Almeria had a shocking lead. It didn’t last long, as David Villa drew a penalty just a couple of minutes later, and it was converted by Lionel Messi. Surprise starter Thiago put Barcelona ahead in the 64th minute, and Messi put the cherry on top of the victory in stoppage time.

Real Madrid didn’t exactly play up to their lofty standards for the majority of their match against Athletic Bilbao, but they were terrific where it counted the most, leading to their 3-0 win. Athletic gave Madrid all that they could handle in the center of the pitch with their tackling and build-up play, but Madrid defended intelligently and finished well, while Athletic did neither of these things,

Two of Madrid’s three goals were penalties converted by Kaka, and both were drawn by Angel Di Maria. Both penalties were very clear cut, leaving very little for the referee to actually decide. The third was an open play combination between Esteban Granero and Cristiano Ronaldo, who came on as a substitute and finished off a great chance less than ten minutes later.

Athletic Bilbao got off to a great start at home in their La Liga match against Real Madrid, but despite Madrid struggling to get out of their own half for the majority of the first 13 minutes of the game, the visitors are ahead on 13 minutes thanks to a penalty kick that was drawn by Angel Di Maria and converted by Kaka. They’ve been on the back foot all game, but thanks to a solid counter-attacking all and a serious lapse in judgment by Athletic goalkeeper Gorka Iraizoz.

As Di Maria ran onto a ball in the box with no defenders in sight, Iraizoz rushed out and and made a sloppy play for the ball, making heavy contact with the Argentinian in the box. The referee pointed to the spot, but lucky for Iraizoz and Bilbao, the opportunity in the box for Di Maria was not judged to be a clear cut scoring chance, and Iraizoz was shown yellow instead of red. Kaka stepped up to the penalty spot, and he converted easily, low and left.

As usual, Athletic Bilbao’s lineup features hard workers and tough tacklers. Real Madrid might have more in the way of overall quality, but Athletic’s combination of grit and a decent amount of skill, along with the difficulty of a trip to San Mames, will certainly make things hard on Los Blancos. There’s a small degree of ambiguity in Bilbao’s lineup, but we should be able to figure out what the formation of their team is very shortly. It’s listed as both a 4-4-2 and a 4-3-3, based on where you look, and it’s easy to see how it could be either. Madrid’s lineup looks odd too, and they could be playing with Pepe as a defensive midfielder, or with a three man back line.

Athletic Bilbao lineup (projected 4-4-2): Iraizoz; Iraola, San Jose, Castillo, Ekiza; Muniain, Martinez, Orbaiz, Gurpegui; Toquero, Llorente