As is always the case, Barcelona and Real Madrid grabbed the headlines in La Liga action this week. Barcelona played to a scintillating 2-2 draw with Valencia and Madrid was shocked in a draw themselves, but there were three other league matches on Wednesday and while one was a shellacking, two were close and entertaining contests.
Spanish La Liga 2011, Week 4 Roundup: Atletico Madrid, Malaga and Levante All Prevail
Atletico Madrid 4-0 Sporting Gijon
No Sergio Aguero or Diego Forlan, no problem for Atletico Madrid. That's because they have Radamel Falcao. Atletico's new signing shined on Wednesday, scoring two as his team cruised to a 4-0 win over Sporting Gijon and giving them plenty of momentum heading into this weekend's clash with Barcelona.
Falcao had an impact beyond his two goals, hitting a shot that Alberto Lora put in his own goal for the first tally of the match. Alvaro Dominguez got Atletico’s second goal, heading home a ball from Gabi to double the Atletico lead. Falcao got back into the action for the third goal, dribbling through the Gijon defense before striking low and into the side netting for the 3-0 lead. He sealed things with a header of Gabi’s free kick, giving him two goals in the match and five in his last two as the Colombian continues to thrive in La Liga after moving to Atletico from Porto in the summer.
Malaga 1-0 Athletic Bilbao
All that money at Malaga might be paying off. One of the club's big money signings this summer delivered them three points on Wednesday as Santi Cazorla curled home a gorgeous free kick just after the hour mark to give the home side a 1-0 victory over Athletic Bilbao. The win has Malaga second in the La Liga table on nine points, trailing Valencia by just one point.
As has been the case far too often for Athletic this season, they had the bulk of possession, but nothing in the final third. Not only were they unable to turn their possession into goals, but they struggled to even create chances. That opened the door for Cazorla’s free kick, which was perfectly placed in the upper corner for the new signing’s fourth goal of the season. More importantly, it was the winning goal for Malaga and unfortunately for Athletic and new manager Marcelo Bielsa, it was the goal that sent them to their third consecutive loss.
Newly-promoted Rayo Vallecano surprised many by going unbeaten in their first three matches, but Levante put an end to that unbeaten run. They jumped out to an early 2-0 lead and then held on to take down Rayo, 2-1, with the drama all but coming to an end 13 minutes from time when Pedro was sent off to kill any chances Rayo had of completing their comeback.
Levante took down Real Madrid over the weekend an carried that momentum over to Wednesday. Valdo was able to get on the end of an Arounda Kone cross and head home to put Levante up just 10 minutes in. Before a half hour was gone the visitors had doubled their lead as Sergio Ballesteros nodded home a corner kick and it looked like Levante were on cruise control.
Rayo began to mount a comeback in the second half as they grabbed more control of the match and in the 72nd minute they cut the Levante lead in half. Raul Tamado got a penalty and while he had it saved, he knocked hom the rebound for the Rayo goal. Just five minute later though, Pedro was sent off for kicking out at Ballesteros and Levante were on their way to full points.
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