It was Madrid derby weekend in LaLiga and a home win for Los Blancos adds further weight to the theory that Real Madrid are going to be very difficult to stop this season in Spain. Elsewhere there were more dropped points for Barcelona, a thumping win for Betis and fresh pain for winless Levante. Read on for our LaLiga matchday 17 review featuring all the results, xG data, stats and team of the week.
LaLiga Matchday 17 Results & Expected Goals
Friday 10th December 2021
Mallorca 0-0 Celta Vigo (xG: 0.90-1.33)
Saturday 11th December 2021
Espanyol 4-3 Levante (xG: 2.14-3.39)
Alaves 1-1 Getafe (xG: 0.99-1.05)
Valencia 2-1 Elche (xG: 1.68-1.13)
Athletic Club 0-1 Sevilla (xG: 2.36-0.21)
Sunday 12th December 2021
Villarreal 2-0 Rayo Vallecano (xG: 2.11-1.41)
Osasuna 2-2 Barcelona (xG: 0.37-1.39)
Real Betis 4-0 Real Sociedad (xG: 1.22-1.07)
Real Madrid 2-0 Atletico Madrid (xG: 0.59-0.77)
Monday 13th December 2021
Cadiz 1-1 Granada (xG: 0.62-1.12)
xG data in this post comes via Understat. Other stats are via Whoscored.
Matchday 17 – Stats & Star Performers
Team Stats
| Most Possession | GRANADA – 65.7% |
| Highest Pass Success Rate | REAL MADRID – 90% |
| Lowest Pass Success Rate | MALLORCA – 55% |
| Most Shots | VALENCIA – 21 |
| Fewest Shots | SEVILLA – 6 |
| Highest xG | LEVANTE – 3.39 |
| Lowest xG | SEVILLA – 0.21 |
| xG Over-Performer | REAL BETIS – 4 Goals from 1.22 xG |
| xG Under-Performer | ATHLETIC CLUB – 0 Goals from 2.36 xG |
| Highest Attendance | REAL BETIS vs REAL SOCIEDAD – 52,158 |
| Lowest Attendance | ALAVES vs GETAFE – 10,065 |
Some strange stats this week and if you didn’t know, you’d certainly struggle to figure out the results of some of these sides. Sevilla won their match despite registering the lowest xG and fewest number of shots of any team in LaLiga on matchday 17. Athletic Club, will once more be wondering just how they failed to get anything from a game where they created by far the better chances with no goals to show from their 2.36 xG at San Mames against Julen Lopetegui’s side.
Bottom side Levante meanwhile created the most xG this weekend yet still managed to lose their game at the RCDE Stadium. There were also some striking statistics from the Mallorca-Celta game which ended 0-0. Both sides ended up playing very direct with pass completion rates of 55% for Mallorca and 57% for Celta, the lowest we saw on this matchday in the Spanish top flight.
Individual Stats
| Most Shots | HUGO DURO (Valencia) & ALVARO GARCIA (Rayo Vallecano) – 6 |
| Most Completed Passes | TONI KROOS (Real Madrid) – 90 |
| Most Key Passes | CARLOS SOLER (Valencia) – 5 |
| Most Completed Dribbles | GERARD MORENO (Villarreal) – 6 |
| Most Aerials Won | RENATO TAPIA (Celta Vigo) – 9 |
| Most Successful Tackles | HELIBELTON PALACIOS (Elche) & RODRIGO BATTAGLIA (Mallorca) – 7 |
| Most Interceptions | GERARD PIQUE (Barcelona) & CARLOS AKAPO (Cadiz) – 6 |
Some big names feature in the individual stats this week Toni Kroos completing the most passes, Carlos Soler the most key passes and Gerard Moreno the most dribbles in LaLiga on matchday 17. Hugo Duro and Alvaro Garcia also continued their lively seasons with both players having 6 attempts on goal, a joint high.
Defensively, Renato Tapia was the man who ended up dealing with the most long balls in that direct clash between Mallorca and Celta. The Peruvian won 9 aerial duels. Gerard Pique was also a busy man for Barcelona, leading the league in interceptions this weekend along with Cadiz’s Carlos Akapo.
Sorare LaLiga Fantasy Team of the Week
We’ve taken some inspiration from Chacho Coudet with a Celta Vigo style 4-1-3-2 formation this week and with a bunch of left-sided players shoehorned into the team, it might not win many football matches but it features some of the stars of this matchday.
There were three 90+ scores. one of them came from Betis left-back Alex Moreno, who surprisingly netted twice in his team’s 4-0 rout of Real Sociedad. Jorge de Frutos is one of the few Levante players to cover himself in any glory this season and he was again their standout player in a 4-3 defeat. However both were pipped to the player of the week crown by another relatively surprise inclusion in the team given his limited involvement this season.
Sorare Player of the Week: Aïssa Mandi (99)
It’s fair to say Aïssa Mandi has not made a great start to life at Villarreal. Indeed before this weekend, he had not featured in LaLiga since an unconvincing display in the 3-3 draw at home to Cadiz at the end of October but the Algerian international showed his class weekend with an assured defensive display and a goal in Villarreal’s 2-0 win over Rayo.
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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