It was a weekend of derbies in LaLiga with Valencia winning the big clash with Villarreal while the Basque derby ended level between Athletic and Real Sociedad after Iker Muniain’s late free-kick salvaged a point for the visitors. Elsewhere, Barcelona began life after Ronald Koeman with a disappointing draw while defending champions Atletico Madrid put in one of their best performances of the season against Betis. Read on for our LaLiga matchday 12 review featuring all the results, xG data, key stats and team of the week.
LaLiga Matchday 12 Results & Expected Goals
Saturday 30th October 2021
Elche 1-2 Real Madrid (xG: 1.15-1.61)
Sevilla 2-0 Osasuna (xG: 2.43-0.79)
Valencia 2-0 Villarreal (xG: 1.66-0.80)
Barcelona 1-1 Alaves (xG: 1.56-0.60)
Sunday 31st October 2021
Cadiz 1-1 Mallorca (xG: 1.80-1.04)
Atletico Madrid 3-0 Real Betis (xG: 2.55-0.52)
Getafe 2-1 Espanyol (xG: 0.95-0.62)
Real Sociedad 1-1 Athletic Club (xG: 1.06-1.01)
Monday 1st November 2021
Rayo Vallecano 0-0 Celta Vigo (xG: 0.47-0.44)
Levante 0-3 Granada (xG: 1.33-1.46)
xG data in this post comes via Understat. Other stats are via Whoscored.
Matchday 12 – Stats & Star Performers
Team Stats
| Most Possession | BARCELONA – 79.4% |
| Highest Pass Success Rate | BARCELONA – 91% |
| Lowest Pass Success Rate | VALENCIA – 57% |
| Most Shots | ATLETICO MADRID – 18 |
| Fewest Shots | ALAVES – 3 |
| Highest xG | ATLETICO MADRID – 2.55 |
| Lowest xG | CELTA VIGO – 0.44 |
| xG Over-Performer | GRANADA – 3 Goals from 1.46 xG |
| xG Under-Performer | LEVANTE – 0 Goals from 1.33 xG |
| Highest Attendance | ATLETICO MADRID vs REAL BETIS – 56,838 |
| Lowest Attendance | GETAFE vs ESPANYOL – 4,721 |
There were a few standout games from a statistical perspective this week. Granada’s 3-0 win at Levante on Monday night plunges the Valencia club into huge trouble. They’ve now gone 20 without a victory in LaLiga and that home defeat to one of their likely relegation rivals will hurt. However the scoreline certainly flattered Granada to some extent with Robert Moreno’s team the biggest xG over-performers this week while Levante were again wasteful in front of goal, failing to convert from 1.33 xG.
In the derby at Mestalla, Valencia did a job on Villarreal with some direct, fast breaks helping them secure a 2-0 win despite only completing 57% of their passes, the lowest percentage in LaLiga this weekend. That may prove Villarreal’s final game under Unai Emery with their Europa League winning coach strongly linked with a move to Newcastle.
Barcelona had the highest percentage in that category and also nearly 80% possession but it wasn’t enough to help them see off Alaves under the leadership of caretaker boss Sergi Barjuán. Perhaps the most striking figure from that game was the attendance. Just over 37,000 were at Camp Nou, meaning the iconic stadium was at under 40% capacity with almost 20,000 more fans in attendance for Atleti’s win over Betis, the highest crowd of the weekend in Spain.
Individual Stats
| Most Shots | ANTHONY LOZANO (Cadiz) & ENES UNAL (Getafe) – 6 |
| Most Completed Passes | ERIC GARCIA (Barcelona) – 112 |
| Most Key Passes | IKER MUNIAIN (Athletic Club) – 6 |
| Most Completed Dribbles | YANNICK CARRASCO (Atletico Madrid) – 7 |
| Most Aerials Won | JOSELU (Alaves) – 9 |
| Most Successful Tackles | OSCAR DE MARCOS (Athletic Club), ALEX FERNANDEZ (Cadiz), PABLO MAFFEO (Mallorca) & IDDRISU BABA (Mallorca) – 6 |
| Most Interceptions | FLORIAN LEJEUNE (Alaves) & MAMADOU LOUM (Alaves) – 4 |
The individual stats had something of a familiar ring to it. Anthony Lozano, who netted a hat-trick and had the most shots on matchday 11, also fired in 6 attempts at goal for Cadiz on Sunday, the joint most in the league along with Enes Unal. The latter scored twice as Getafe finally won their first game of the season with a 2-1 victory over Espanyol.
Not for the first time this season, Barcelona centre-back Eric Garcia completed the most passes with 112, only 4 more than his teammate Jordi Alba managed against an Alaves side that predictably went direct to Joselu who won a matchday 12 high of 9 aerial challenges.
Also not for the first time in LaLiga 2021/22, the player with the most key passes was Iker Muniain. The Athletic midfielder is having a fabulous season and led from the front to help his side salvage a late derby draw at the Reale Arena on Sunday night.
Sorare LaLiga Fantasy Team of the Week
Real Madrid contributed the most players to the LaLiga matchday 12 team of the week with Eder Militao, Luka Modric and Vini Junior forming a strong spine in their victory at Elche.
Iker Muniain unsurprisingly features again following those six key passes but he was outscored by a couple of players including Atleti’s Yannick Carrasco who was on top of his game in his team’s impressive victory over Betis.
Sorare Player of the Week: Dimitri Foulquier (98)
We had another surprise player of the week with Valencia full-back Dimitri Foulquier starring down the right flank and just pipping Carrasco to the crown. Foulquier won a penalty and created a goal to give him a decisive score of 70 which was built on with a strong all-round display.
Sorare is a Fantasy Football platform with one of the most advanced scoring matrices. All players are scored from 0-100 based on performance. You can read our latest Sorare content here to find out more about it.
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