La Liga, Week 6: Real Madrid score controversial win over Elche

The midweek portion of this long week six in La Liga is complete and before things begin again tomorrow with another four days of games, lets look back at what we learned from the first half the match week.

Here’s all the results from the mid-week action in La Liga:

And then we discarded not one, but two narratives within the space of two minutes. Ninety one minutes in, substitute Richmond Bokaye turned the story upon its head, finishing past Diego Lopez from close range to seemingly gift Elche a well-earned point. And just as we were all reeling from that little turn of events, that too was upended.

Carlos Sanchez might have complained vehemently (seriously, he was sent off after the match ended), but he definitely dragged Pepe to the ground during a corner kick, and doing that sort of thing right in front of the referee tends to go badly for your team. Several yellow cards later, Ronaldo was standing in front of goal, and calmly slotted home to reestablish Real’s lead. This time, it would hold, mostly because it was scored in the 96th minute. Initially, the fourth official indicated that the second half would have three minutes of stoppage time.

If there was ever a time for Elche to pull off a massive upset or at least steal a point, this might be it. Then again, Madrid should have more than enough quality to see off Los Franjiverdes.

Elche injuries and suspensions

The woodwork denied Real Sociedad an absolutely dream start when Haris Seferovic’s shot from outside the Barca box was denied by the crossbar in the second minute of the match.

Two minutes later things turned into a nightmare for La Real.

For what it’s worth, La Real head coach Jagoba Arrasate has told the media his team will not sit back against Barca. He explained in the pre-match press conference that sitting back against the Blaugrana only leads to a very long day and a loss.

Real Sociedad injuries and suspensions

If it feels like week five in Spain just ended, it did. The schedule making computer clearly doesn’t have mercy as a programmable option as La Liga lumbers ahead with the first part of match week six with games Tuesday through Thursday. There’s games over the weekend as well -- 11 straight days of matches all together -- but we’ll look at those later in the week.

For now, let’s focus on the midweek action since sleep and getting break are clearly overrated.