It was a weekend where normal order was restored to some extent at the top of LaLiga. Barcelona and Atletico Madrid now both occupy top four positions following away wins giving the UCL places a familiar feel at last. Meanwhile Real Madrid opened up an 8 point advantage on 2nd placed Sevilla who dropped points in Vitoria. Read on for our LaLiga matchday 27 review featuring all the results, xG data, stats and team of the week.
LaLiga Matchday 27 Results & Expected Goals
Friday 4th March 2022
Alaves 0-0 Sevilla (xG: 2.03-1.08)
Saturday 5th March 2022
Osasuna 1-0 Villarreal (xG: 1.53-0.52)
Espanyol 2-0 Getafe (xG: 0.12-0.48)
Valencia 3-1 Granada (xG: 1.83-0.21)
Real Madrid 4-1 Real Sociedad (xG: 2.09-0.74)
Sunday 6th March 2022
Cadiz 2-0 Rayo Vallecano (xG: 1.17-0.91)
Elche 1-2 Barcelona (xG: 0.85-4.09)
Celta Vigo 4-3 Mallorca (xG: 2.80-1.59)
Real Betis 1-3 Atletico Madrid (xG: 1.31-2.67)
Monday 7th March 2022
Athletic Club 3-1 Levante (xG: 3.49-0.55)
xG data in this post comes via Understat. Other stats are via Whoscored.
Matchday 27 – Stats & Star Performers
Team Stats
| Most Possession | VILLARREAL – 72.5% |
| Highest Pass Success Rate | REAL MADRID – 90% |
| Lowest Pass Success Rate | ALAVES – 61% |
| Most Shots | BARCELONA – 20 |
| Fewest Shots | REAL SOCIEDAD – 1 |
| Highest xG | BARCELONA – 4.09 |
| Lowest xG | ESPANYOL – 0.12 |
| xG Over-Performer | REAL MADRID – 4 Goals from 2.09 xG |
| xG Under-Performer | BARCELONA – 2 Goals from 4.09 xG |
| Highest Attendance | REAL MADRID vs REAL SOCIEDAD – 52,410 |
| Lowest Attendance | CELTA VIGO vs MALLORCA – 11,320 |
There were some striking stats this weekend and a few surprising results and scorelines when you take the Expected Goals tallies into account. Nowhere more so than at the RCDE Stadium where Espanyol recorded their first win of 2022 by beating Getafe 2-0 despite having only four attempts in the whole game with a weekend low xG tally of just 0.12, one of the lowest we’ve seen all season from a team in LaLiga.
However Real Sociedad registered a non-penalty xG tally of exactly 0 in their game at the Santiago Bernabeu. That’s because their only shot was Mikel Oyarzabal’s successful penalty as Los Blancos produced one of their most dominant performances of the season, a perfect warm-up for their UEFA Champions League tie with PSG.
Barcelona also put in a strong display, having the most shots and creating the most xG of any team in LaLiga on matchday 27 although it was still only a narrow win against an Elche side that took the lead and were left bemoaning a host of decisions which went in the visitors’ favour.
Individual Stats
| Most Shots | INAKI WILLIAMS (Athletic Club), FERRAN TORRES (Barcelona), CRISTIAN TELLO (Real Betis) – 6 |
| Most Completed Passes | RAUL ALBIOL (Villarreal) – 91 |
| Most Key Passes | JOAQUIN (Real Betis) & ALEX BERENGUER (Athletic Club) – 5 |
| Most Completed Dribbles | ETIENNE CAPOUE (Villarreal) – 6 |
| Most Aerials Won | JOSELU (Alaves) – 11 |
| Most Successful Tackles | PEPELU (Levante) – 6 |
| Most Interceptions | YERAY ALVAREZ (Athletic Club) – 6 |
The individual leaders this week only feature one name from the top four, that being Barcelona’s Ferran Torres who had 6 attempts on goal and scored the equaliser for his team as they came from behind to win at Elche.
It’s the names of a couple of veterans that jump out though. 36 year old Raul Albiol completed the most passes of any player this weekend but in terms of key passes, no player could eclipse 40 year old Joaquin who completed five for Betis, a joint matchday high along with Alex Berenguer of Athletic.
Sorare LaLiga Fantasy Team of the Week
Jordi Alba was the only really standout defender this week but there were lots of very high scores in midfield and up front. The likes of Marcos Llorente and Eduardo Camavinga would have made the team in most weeks with scores of 85 but standout showings from Carlos Soler and Luka Modric led the way amongst midfielders.
In attack, Joao Felix’s recent resurgence continued with a brace for Atletico Madrid in their 3-1 win at Real Betis. Meanwhile Karim Benzema was very much in the thick of things as usual for Real Madrid in their impressive victory over La Real.
Sorare Player of the Week: Iago Aspas (100)
Iago Aspas took centre stage in Celta Vigo’s thrilling 4-3 win over Mallorca. The Galician native chipped in with 2 goals and an assist as Chacho Coudet’s team grabbed all the points at Balaidos.
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.
Read More: Espanyol still searching for more at the RCDE Stadium
Mark Sochon is an experienced football writer and editor of LaLiga Expert. Based in Madrid, he has covered La Liga and Spanish football for many years. He also covers Spanish and European football for Goal and Betfred, while his work has previously been published by the Guardian and World Soccer.