Just when La Liga’s title race was already threatening to become a two-horse affair, match day 6 reminded everyone just how unpredictable and exciting the Spanish top flight can be. Most of the action came on a remarkable Wednesday evening with the big guns both falling to defeats on the road with some fairly horrendous defending leading to their downfall.
La Liga Match Day 6 Results, Expected Goals & Highlights
Tuesday
Espanyol 1-0 Eibar (xG 0.9-0.2)
Real Sociedad 2-2 Rayo Vallecano (xG 1.24-1.78)
Atletico Madrid 3-0 Huesca (xG 1.16-0.5)
Wednesday
Leganes 2-1 Barcelona (xG 1.18-0.4)
Athletic Bilbao 0-3 Villarreal (xG 0.75-2.45)
Sevilla 3-0 Real Madrid (xG 1.04-0.4)
Valencia 1-1 Celta Vigo (xG 2.29-1.55)
Thursday
Real Valladolid 2-1 Levante (xG 1.25-1.10)
Alaves 1-1 Getafe (xG 1.65-1.21)
Girona 0-1 Real Betis (xG 0.83-1.56)
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Bottom Club Leganes score twice in a minute to beat Barca
Leganés 2-1 Barcelona FT:
12′ ⚽️ Coutinho
52′ ⚽️ El Zhar
53′ ⚽️ OscarThe 20th-placed side before the game come from behind to beat the defending champions in top spot. ? pic.twitter.com/NzaCm8wAYf
— Squawka News (@SquawkaNews) September 26, 2018
Wednesday evening started in ordinary enough fashion. Philippe Coutinho gave Barcelona the lead early on, naturally from outside the box, to set the wheels in motion for what fans of the Catalan club might have expected would become a fairly routine win. However the game was transformed in the space of a little over a minute early in the second period. First Nabil El Zhar got the wrong side of Thomas Vermaelen, a surprise pick at left-back, to fire home an equaliser. Then Barcelona truly pressed self-destruct moments later when Gerard Pique’s woeful pass/clearance went straight to Oscar Rodriguez, who finished competently.
The fact Oscar is a Real Madrid loanee was lost on nobody but of greater concern to Barcelona would be their lacklustre response to going behind. Leganes keeper Pichu Cuellar produced one brilliant double save but in truth La Liga’s bottom club saw the game out with relative ease as questions were once again raised as to just how deep this Barcelona squad is with Valverde’s rotation failing for the second match running.
Sevilla claim 4th straight home league win over Real
? Real Madrid have lost 6 of the past 7 League games at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium.
Sevilla (A) a real bogey fixture for Madrid these days…
Which ground do you HATE your club going to? ? pic.twitter.com/7DoPX8RYKU
— Oddschanger (@Oddschanger) September 27, 2018
Real Madrid barely had time to digest the good news from Butarque, before they were in a world of trouble themselves. A woeful First Half defensive display against an inspired and energetic Sevilla side, saw the hosts race into a 3-0 lead with in-form strikers Andre Silva and Wissam Ben Yedder doing the damage. The scoreline didn’t flatter Sevilla whose record at home to Real Madrid is exceptional and they never looked like letting Los Blancos back into the game. Luka Modric did find the net in the Second Half only for his strike to be ruled out by VAR and there was an air of resignation about his removal in the 70th minute with Julen Lopetegui seemingly intent to cut his losses and conserve energy for the weekend’s Madrid derby.
At least Real fans can point to the quality of the opposition as an explanation for their defeat. Sevilla were brilliant and appear to be really thriving under the stewardship of an attack-minded coach. Los Blancos will need to be much better if they are to avoid back-to-back defeats when they face a revitalised Atleti on Saturday.
Read more – LLE @ The Games – Atletico Madrid see off Huesca at the Wanda
Fornals wonder-goal helps Villarreal to easy win at San Mames
* Fans go wild as Villarreal’s Fornals scores 40-yard volley and performs outrageous piece of skill : https://t.co/DGd0sg5ZAR pic.twitter.com/6AdMrXUHrT
— ⚽️Football Mania (@footymania247) September 27, 2018
You have to have some sympathy for Villarreal and particularly their young midfielder Pablo Fornals. On any other night, their 3-0 win at San Mames in part thanks to an early goal of the season contender from Fornals, would have been enough to get plenty of tongues wagging. For perhaps the first time, the Yellow Submarine appear to be starting to truly gel together following a busy summer of comings and goings. Villarreal fans were upset to see some of their young stars leave but they’ll be delighted to have held on to Pablo Fornals, who served a reminder of his talents with a brilliant long-range effort that started the scoring. For Athletic though, it’s a case of back to the drawing board. The Basques haven’t won since the opening day and travel to Camp Nou this weekend.
Read more – Match-Day Five Review
Match Day 6 in Numbers
- Barcelona and Real Madrid lost on the same day in La Liga for the 1st time since January 2015.
- Barca’s loss was just their 2nd in 44 league matches under Ernesto Valverde.
- All 3 remaining unbeaten records in La Liga went on Wednesday (Barcelona, Real Madrid and Athletic all lost).
- Espanyol have won all 3 home games this term to nil following their victory over Eibar on Tuesday.
- Andre Silva’s brace against Real saw him overtake Leo Messi to become La Liga’s leading scorer with 6 goals. He only netted twice in all of last season in Serie A.
Up Next…
The action keeps coming thick and fast with Friday night’s clash between Rayo Vallecano and Espanyol kicking off match-day 7. The standout fixture this weekend though is the big Madrid derby at the Bernabeu on Saturday as Real look to bounce back against an Atleti side they haven’t beaten at home in any of the last 5 league seasons.
Keep tabs on our La Liga match predictions and previews for more analysis ahead of the coming games.
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