Blogs

What did we learn from the first week of La Liga?

|

Elsewhere in La Liga, Athletico who suffered heavily this summer due to the departures of Aguero and De Gea to opposite sides of Manchester and Diego Forlan to Inter Milan will not be happy with the fact they were held at home to a goalless draw by Osasuna, with more expected from marque signing and former Porto goal machine Falcon.

Newly promoted Real Betis and relegation candidate Sociedad will be pleased with away victories, and top four contender Valencia were lucky to win an enthralling 7 goal game at the Mestalla courtesy of a 90’ goal and hattrick from Soldadao after his 7 minute own goal cancelled out his first minute opener.

As most people’s favourites to win the title outside the top two, Valencia will look to get over the sale of prized asset Juan Mata to Chelsea and perform both domestically and in Europe. For a team that in recent seasons have lost Villa, Silva and now Mata, Valencia and Uno Emery have much to be proud of.

Malaga could well be the surprise package this season, boosted by new ownership and more money than their fans ever thought possible from the oil billionaires, and have bought in big names such as Van Nistlerooy, Toulalan, Joaquin and dealt a heavy blow to Villarreal with the purchase of record signing Santi Cazorla.

Add to this the pedigree of coach in Pellegrini and much is expected of Los Boquerones this season. However, all this did not stop an opening day defeat to Sevilla by 2 – 1. Relegation favourites and play off winners Granada lost to fellow promotes Real Betis, and Vallecano got a great point away at contenders for Europe Bilbao.

Clearly the race for the title is between the top two, but the remaining European places are more open than in the premier league, as is the relegation battle, and plenty of thrills and spills are expected from La Liga this season, and not just because of the Classicos – even so the first league Classico on the 11th December is certainly a date in most people’s diaries.

ThisisFutbol.com are seeking new writers to join the team! If you’re passionate about football, drop us a line at “thisisfutbol.com@snack-media.com” to learn more.

Click here to have a look out our predictions for the 2011/2012 Premier League Season!

Or have a look at the ten strikers that we think will lead the race for the Golden Boot next season

Share this article

0 comments

Comments are closed.