La Liga, Round 4: Real Madrid, Barca both win big while Atléti stumbles

Everything Messi does, he does better than anyone else. Much of it is stuff that nobody else on the field can even dream of. And he just makes it look so easy.

So when the goalkeeper gets caught on, Messi dribbles past one defender, past another, escapes the sprawling goalkeeper and then, with his off foot, chips another defender for a goal. That is very difficult to do, and he made it look like anyone can do it.

For the opening 30 minutes or so, Levante held their own against the Blaugrana, even managing to generate a couple of good chances of their own. If not for a timely block by Ivan Rakitić on one occasion, the Granotes would’ve taken a lead as well. Unfortunately for the home side, it’s rarely a question of if Barca scores, but when.

The second goal would come, just a few minutes after Messi’s missed penalty. Ivan Rakitić‘s rocket from outside the area took a deflection on its way towards goal and flew past Jesús to give Barca a 2-0 lead at the break.

Neymar spent a couple minutes on the ground, prompting the Barca physio to signal the bench for a sub. Sandro Ramirez was sent out in Neymar’s place, but the Brazilian was up and walking by that point and apparently none to pleased with the decision to remove him from the game.

Key Player: Neymar (Barcelona)

Key Matchup: Barcelona vs. Overconfidence

Bilbao struggled against Shakhtar this Wednesday but at least collected a point. This time, Joaquín Caparrós’ Granada did enough to get the win against a Bilbao side who might be in desperate need of depth now that the European season has started. The Basque side tried their best, but Jhon Córdoba’s goal was too hard to overcome against such a solid Granada squad built by Caparrós.

Offensive set pieces seem to be working just fine for Atlético, but the problem is their offensive line is not producing enough. Even so, Simeone decided to take off Griezmann and Jiménez when los rojiblancos were trying to score the winning goal. Mario Mandzukic missed the game with a nose fracture, and Atlético missed some firepower other than two good set pieces taken by Koke and finished by Miranda and Godín. Celta kept most of the possession and knew how to frustrate Atleti’s tries, so one could say the Galician side deserved the point at the Calderón.