La Liga, Week 16: Barcelona defeats Villarreal, Madrid comeback to draw Osasuna

Don’t let some boring old talking head or social media know-it-all try to tell you that La Liga isn’t interesting. Sure it’s top heavy, but that’s not particularly uncommon in modern club football. Yes it’s dominated by a handful of teams, again a common thing.

Here’s a full list of the result from week 16 in Spain.

Villarreal gave Barcelona everything that they could handle at the Camp Nou on Saturday but it still wasn’t quite enough to defeat the Blaugrana. Neymar’s first half penalty and second half strike was the difference as Barcelona remained undefeated at home in league play this season.

Neymar did pick-up a yellow card in the 85th minute, which will keep him out of the next league match against Getafe.

The draw ends Madrid’s five-match winning streak.

Madrid dominated the opening 15 minutes but couldn’t break through with a goal. Their best chance came in the 10th minute when Isco took the steam off a quick cross field pass with a clever back-heel, leaving the ball set up perfectly for Cristiano Ronaldo. His effort was poor though as he skipped the ball off the outside of the post.

That doesn’t bode well for Osasuna who are sitting in 16th, just one point out of the drop zone. It’s also not a good sign that Osasuna have been leaking goals this season, allowing 25 against only 11 scored. Given Madrid’s propensity to score lots of goals, this could get out of hand quickly.

Osasuna injuries and suspensions