La Liga - 2014/15

I've always thought Isco was the natural successor to Iniesta. Hazard reminds me more of Robben.
 
Cina said:
Course you can. They're 2 of the best young forward players in the world.
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With one being in great form when he's deployed as a CM with freedom all over (Isco) and the other being more of a winger/forward. Hazard is better compared with Ronaldo or Bale. I mean there is no rule to compare this or that player of course, I just prefer to do it between players of similar roles.
 
Oier fcks up and Camarasa atones for giving away the penalty, 1-1 with two plus stoppage time to go.
 
Wow, poor Granada... lost it in the final minute. Barral with the winner.

Iturra almost in tears in his post-match interview
 
Have to say, Levante just don't wanna go down. They looked absolutely terrible in the first three months of the season and a certainty for the drop. Since then they've somehow beaten Valencia and salvaged draws in Seville and at home to La Real with late equalisers. They also came back v Almería and Getafe and even in their thrashing of Málaga two weeks ago they started off 1-0 down. Only at Ipurua and Los Cármenes did they not need to come from behind to rescue a point or win (also a couple of nil-nils here and there). Now again, 1-0 down since the 13th minute, they equalise in the 88th and win it on 90+4'!

Granada (and Córdoba) are in trouble.
 
Skorenzy said:
Have to say, Levante just don't wanna go down. They looked absolutely terrible in the first three months of the season and a certainty for the drop. Since then they've somehow beaten Valencia and salvaged draws in Seville and at home to La Real with late equalisers. They also came back v Almería and Getafe and even in their thrashing of Málaga two weeks ago they started off 1-0 down. Only at Ipurua and Los Cármenes did they not need to come from behind to rescue a point or win (also a couple of nil-nils here and there). Now again, 1-0 down since the 13th minute, they equalise in the 88th and win it on 90+4'!

Granada (and Córdoba) are in trouble.
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It'll be a tough season for them. I fear for Granada though, they're what? 4 points away from safety now?
 
RedSky said:
It'll be a tough season for them. I fear for Granada though, they're what? 4 points away from safety now?
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5pts even considering their current head-to-head against Almería (0-0 at home, so defaults to GD which isn't in their favour); in fact Granada have a negative h2h against Levante just above and Córdoba just below them. They do have positive ones v Depor (both games played) and Elche (return still to come).
 
Skorenzy said:
Wow, poor Granada... lost it in the final minute. Barral with the winner.

Iturra almost in tears in his post-match interview
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Football's a cruel game. But I was at a Levante match ten years ago when they got back into Liga1 after decades in the lower leagues so I'll always be in favour of them staying up instead of Granada.
 
jojojo said:
Football's a cruel game. But I was at a Levante match ten years ago when they got back into Liga1 after decades in the lower leagues so I'll always be in favour of them staying up instead of Granada.
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Yeah, got a soft spot for them too, ever since coming back up in 2010 with their guard of old-old-timers and the whole top of La Liga for two jornadas and qualifying for Europe stunt they pulled under JIM in spite of having one of the lowest budgets in the league (until Eibar took that to new heig... uh, depths). Granada's likeability isn't really helped by the "artificiality" of the Pozzo family construct I guess, basically a player carousel, although they've gone a bit more low-key in recent times.
 
Odd La Liga news of the week, Quique Sánchez Flores has resigned as Getafe manager...after only 54 days in the job. Was good having him back in Spanish football too.
 
Bob Loblaw said:
Odd La Liga news of the week, Quique Sánchez Flores has resigned as Getafe manager...after only 54 days in the job. Was good having him back in Spanish football too.
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That came out of the blue, for me anyways. @jojojo probably knows more :angel:. Really strange as he'd done an excellent job since taking over: 3 wins in their last 5 league games, before his appointment they only managed 4 in 19.
 
Well, they only 'loaned' out Contra because of their financial issues. Maybe they got worse? Anyway, I think relegation might be in the cards now.
 
In other news, Sergio Busquets has renewed his contract, now runs until 2019.

I know someone who'll be delighted with that... @CLARiiON
 
Flores' resignation seems very sudden, the Madrid papers don't seem to have much idea. There's some theorising that it's because Getafe will have to sell players at the end of the season. Jorge Sammir (Brazil-Croatia, ex Dynamo Zagreb) announced on twitter yesterday that he's joining a Chinese team. So the guess would be that it's related to club finances in some way.

He said it's a personal decision, so that he won't find himself in a position that he knows will make him unhappy. Must be pretty serious to make him leave before the end of the season.
 
Matchday 25 - 28 Feb - Barca win, Both Madrids draw
La Liga this weekend.

A couple of good-looking games this weekend and maybe a couple of extra factors due to European football earlier this week and the Copa del Rey next. Will Athletic, who got knocked out of the Europa on Thursday, be at full strength for their local derby at Eibar for example.
(for info Copa del Rey - SF 2nd leg - Wednesday
Villarreal (1) v Barcelona (3) 19:00
Espanyol (1) v Ath Bilbao (1) 21:00 )

Tonight in La Liga:
Espanyol v Córdoba 19:45 (all times UK)

Sat 28 Feb 2015 - Spanish La Liga
Granada CF v Barcelona 15:00
Rayo Vallecano v Levante 17:00
Almería v Deportivo de La Coruña 19:00
Málaga v Getafe 21:00

Sun 1 Mar 2015 - Spanish La Liga
Valencia v Real Sociedad 11:00
Eibar v Ath Bilbao 16:00
Sevilla v Atl Madrid 18:00
Real Madrid v Villarreal 20:00

Mon 2 Mar 2015 - Spanish La Liga
Celta de Vigo v Elche 19:45

Granada in 19th place should be easy meat for Barcelona, who thrashed them 6-0 at the Camp Nou. But Granada at home are usually hard to beat, so it could be more of a game than it looks. In fact if Barca hadn't lost to Malaga last weekend, I might even have predicted a draw. As it is, I don't see Barca making another slip.

Amazingly all three Basque clubs; Real Sociedad, Athletic and Eibar are sat on 27 points right in the middle of La Liga. I reckon Eibar could be back on top of the Basque mini-league by the end of the weekend.

I never trust an Emery team to play well away from home against a top 4 club. However, Sevilla with home advantage is a different matter. Koke's still out. It won't be easy for Atletico, and it may come down to how well they've recovered from their Bayer Leverkusen defeat.

Saul, who suffered bruising to the kidneys in Leverkusen, is still in hospital in Germany. He's described as "improving" and there's a picture of him today smiling for the cameras from his hospital bed.

Real Madrid - Villareal could be a really good match. However like Athletic, Villareal were in the Europa mid-week (Villareal went through) and they have a Copa match next week. Marcelino says he will be resting some players, the speculation is that will include Vietto, who's been a key man for them this year.

On the Madrid side, Bale and Ronaldo have missed some training sessions this week due to injury - will Ancelotti finally rest/rotate someone? Finally, one curious random stat - Real Madrid have 0 draws in La Liga this season. W20 D0 L4
 
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Piqué is banned and a few players are rested for Barcelona. Good to see Bartra getting another game though.

Full line-up:
Claudio Bravo, Dani Alves, Bartra, Mathieu, Jordi Alba, Mascherano, Rakitić, Xavi, Messi, Suárez, Neymar.
 
I'd love to see a breakdown of Barcelona results by kick off time. Might be way off but for some reason any time they kick off at 4pm local time they don't look so good.
 
Rakitic puts Barcelona 1-0 up, rebound.

Also...the channel I'm streaming just cut to an ad break mid game :lol:
 
What was that Granada defender thinking :rolleyes:
 
There's literally no link-up play between Barça's MF and FW with Mascherano in there instead of Busquets...
 
Skorenzy said:
Suárez again with a ridiculously lucky "assist", well not really, don't even know what that was supposed to be, shot or cross :lol:
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Looked like a terrible shot to me, but yep lucky that the defender messed up and that Rakitic was alert.
 
Thought that was an awful decision not to give a penalty to Granada but looking at the replay I think it was the right call.
 
Messi's blushes spared by the offside flag, missed an open net (think he knew he was off, but still...)
 
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