The final full LaLiga matchday of 2021 took place over the weekend. We witnessed a terrific win for Sevilla over Atletico Madrid in the big game of the weekend while leaders Real Madrid surprisingly dropped points at home to Cadiz. There was also a thrilling Monday night Valencia derby. Read on for our LaLiga matchday 18 review featuring all the results, xG data, stats and team of the week.
LaLiga Matchday 18 Results & Expected Goals
Friday 17th December 2021
Celta Vigo 3-1 Espanyol (xG: 1.66-0.38)
Saturday 18th December 2021
Rayo Vallecano 2-0 Alaves (xG: 1.87-0.20)
Real Sociedad 1-3 Villarreal (xG: 1.35-3.02)
Barcelona 3-2 Elche (xG: 2.96-1.27)
Sevilla 2-1 Atletico Madrid (xG: 0.37-1.24)
Sunday 19th December 2021
Granada 4-1 Mallorca (xG: 2.72-1.09)
Athletic Club 3-2 Real Betis (xG: 1.19-2.02)
Getafe 1-0 Osasuna (xG: 1.09-0.71)
Real Madrid 0-0 Cadiz (xG: 2.80-0.24)
Monday 20th December 2021
Levante 3-4 Valencia (xG: 2.74-2.11)
xG data in this post comes via Understat. Other stats are via Whoscored.
Matchday 18 – Stats & Star Performers
Team Stats
| Most Possession | REAL MADRID – 82.1% |
| Highest Pass Success Rate | REAL MADRID – 91% |
| Lowest Pass Success Rate | CADIZ – 54% |
| Most Shots | REAL MADRID – 36 |
| Fewest Shots | CADIZ – 4 |
| Highest xG | VILLARREAL – 3.02 |
| Lowest xG | ALAVES – 0.20 |
| xG Over-Performer | VALENCIA – 4 Goals from 2.11 xG |
| xG Under-Performer | REAL MADRID – 0 Goals from 2.8 xG |
| Highest Attendance | BARCELONA vs ELCHE – 41,664 |
| Lowest Attendance | RAYO VALLECANO vs ALAVES – 7,911 |
There was an extraordinary game at the Santiago Bernabeu where Real Madrid were utterly dominant with 82% possession, 36 attempts on goal and 2.8 xG but crucially no goals in their 0-0 draw against struggling Cadiz. To some extent, it’s a reverse of what has happened in recent weeks where Los Blancos have regularly won games they were often second best in.
Villarreal’s recent resurgence continued as they inflicted a 3-1 defeat on Real Sociedad, the fourth loss in a row for La Real. The Yellow Submarine registered 3.02 xG in that game, the highest of any team in LaLiga this weekend although Mikel Oyarzabal’s red card in the 49th minute was a pivotal moment in the match.
Individual Stats
| Most Shots | TONI KROOS (Real Madrid) & ENES UNAL (Getafe) – 6 |
| Most Completed Passes | TONI KROOS (Real Madrid) – 124 |
| Most Key Passes | TONI KROOS (Real Madrid) – 9 |
| Most Completed Dribbles | EZ ABDE (Barcelona) & ADRIA PEDROSA (Espanyol) – 7 |
| Most Aerials Won | CASEMIRO (Real Madrid) – 14 |
| Most Successful Tackles | JUAN FOYTH (Villarreal) & HELIBELTON PALACIOS (Elche) – 7 |
| Most Interceptions | VICTOR RUIZ (Real Betis), ERIC GARCIA (Barcelona) & IGOR ZUBELDIA (Real Sociedad) – 4 |
It was somewhat predictably the Toni Kroos show at the Santiago Bernabeu for Real Madrid against possession-shy Cadiz. The German led LaLiga this weekend in three categories, completing the most passes and key passes, as well as having the most shots along with Getafe’s Enes Unal.
Barcelona’s Ez Abde showed further evidence to suggest he is already one of the most accomplished dribblers in LaLiga by completing 7 against Elche, the joint most this matchday along with Espanyol’s Adria Pedrosa.
In terms of defensive stats, Casemiro stood out with 14 aerials won as Cadiz tried to play direct on the break. There were also impressive numbers from Juan Foyth and Helibelton Palacios who both made 7 successful tackles.
Sorare LaLiga Fantasy Team of the Week
It was quite a high-scoring weekend in LaLiga and lots of attacking players reached scores in the 80’s and 90’s as a result. Toni Kroos posted a huge all-round score of 64.5 taking him just shy of 100 in Real Madrid’s goalless draw against Cadiz. He’d have easily been player of the week had some his teammates finished better or indeed if one of his six attempts on goal had gone in.
Elsewhere, Carlos Soler and Goncalo Guedes both starred for Valencia in their comeback derby win at Levante but the latter was pipped by Granada’s hat-trick hero Jorge Molina into the team of the week. There were also big performances from Iago Aspas, Thomas Lemar and Barcelona youngster Gavi who scored a fine goal for his team against Elche.
Sorare Player of the Week: Gerard Moreno (100)
The top performer this matchday though was Gerard Moreno who headed in twice from corners before setting up Samu Chukwueze for Villarreal’s 3rd goal in their victory at La Real.
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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