The second game week of La Liga saw Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid head up to the north-west of Spain to face Almería while reigning champions Barcelona welcomed Cadiz to the Montjuic Stadium for their opening home tie at their temporary base.
In the opening action of the week on Friday, Villareal beat Mallorca to see match winner Gerard Moreno go into the history books for El Submarino Amarillo, while Valencia also continued to impress with another win at home to Las Palmas.
Bellingham netted another double for his new side, while also setting up Vinicíus Jr and Xavi’s Barcelona eventually broke through Cadiz with the help of former Man City captain and new signing Ilkay Gundogan.
Two games are still to come this week with Alavés facing Sevilla on Monday afternoon with both sides looking to get their first points of the season. In addition, Granada will face Rayo Vallecano at home in the evening.
The scores on the doors
Mallorca 0-1 Villareal
After a last minute winner from Real Betis’ Willian Jose saw Villareal suffer a 1-0 defeat last week at the Estadio de la Ceràmica, Quique Setien’s side were keen to bounce back to winning ways and record their first points of the season on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca.
A first start was handed to Ben Brereton Diaz with the former Blackburn Rovers and Chilean player replacing Ramon Terratts in the starting line-up. Wearing the number 9 shirt, Diaz created the first chance of note of the game when he played a clever ball through to Alex Baeña who poked the ball narrowly wide.
The game continued to lack any real chances of note, with Baeña coming the closest from a long range effort. Villareal’s breakthrough came in the 62nd minute when Baeña played an excellent corner into the box which was glanced back post by Alexander Sorlorth before eventually falling to Gerard Moreno who tapped in to open his accounts for the season.
Moreno’s goal was his 107th in the colours of El Submarino Amarillo, making him their record goalscorer, with the player having scored in the last ten consecutive seasons of La Liga.
Villareal continued to threaten Mallorca with their best chance to double their advantage coming in the first minute of the second half stoppage time when Denis Suarez and Etienne Coupoue interchanged the ball to break in between the Mallorca backline, with the former Watford midfielder having his effort from inside the box saved by Predrag Rajković in the Mallorcan goal.
Setien’s side were by far the better side impressing with a dominate away display to open their points tally for the season at the Estadio Mallorca.
Valencia 1-0 Las Palmas
Despite Las Palmas dominating away from home at the Mestalla, it was Valencia who took home all three points and created the majority of the efforts on goal.
Valencia’s Diego Lopez had the best chance to open the scoring when he was played through from a Jose Gaya ball, however his effort was well saved by Álvaro Valles to keep the score level.
Valencia continued to create chances with Valles busy in between the sticks, with Las Palmas’ best chance coming from an error from Valencia’s Giorgi Mamardashvili, however, Jonathan Viera could only fire well over.
The deadlock was finally broken when the referee award a penalty to Valencia, after Xavi Munoz had taken the ball of Fran Perez’s toe from albeit an accidental handball from a Thierry Correia cross.
Pepelu converted the following penalty down the middle to give the young Valencia side a second successive win and a fantastic start to the season, from what initially was a very daunting outlook.
For Real Sociedad a second successive home game saw them welcome Rafa Benitez’s Celta Vigo, who were in search of their first points of the season.
Both sides started brightly early on with Carlos Fernández almost opening the scoring for the home side from a corner before Jørgen Strand Laarsen raced up the other end to fire wide from a tight angle.
However, similar to last week, it was La Real who took the lead early on at the Anoeta when the ball was swept out to Takefuso Kubo, who went round his man to play in a deep cross to the far side of the box where number seven Ander Barrenetxea lay in wait to calmly head the ball into the back of the net.
While Barrenetxea’s header gave Sociedad the lead it also signalled the last of their efforts on target for the remainder of the game, with Celta Vigo creating the vast majority of the game’s remaining chances.
Benitez’s side continued to threaten, coming close a number of times with the Álex Remiro keeping Sociedad in the game with some fine saves. The equalising goal eventually came late on when Iago Aaspas took down a corner before playing it to Joseph Aidoo who fired it goal bounds where Óscar Mingueza stuck a leg out to give the Galician side a point.
Both sides will go into next week’s games looking for their first win of the season, with Real Sociedad having an away trip to Las Palmas while for Benitez a return to Real Madrid awaits.
Almería 1-3 Real Madrid
After a difficult start for Almería in the opening match week against Rayo Vallecano, it was not going to get any easier with the Andalusian side this time welcoming Real Madrid to the Power Horse Stadium.
However, it was Almería who opened the scoring in the third minute when Lucas Robertone played a superb ball into the middle for the former Real Madrid midfielder Sergio Arribas who buried the subsequent header past Andriy Lunin.
Unfortunately for Almería their lead was short lived, Fede Valverde swung the ball out to Dani Carvajal who played the ball into the box and back to the Uruguyuan who headed it towards goal, onto the chest of Bellingham, who took the ball down and calmly placed it past debutant Luís Maximiano.
Despite Almería threatening from long range, it was Los Blancos who thought they took the lead when Carvajal and Bellingham interchanged the ball to set up Toni Kross who fired an excellent half volley into the goal off the post, however the goal was disallowed for a Carvajal foul in the build-up leaving the game level at the break.
Madrid’s quality continued to show, however, with the side eventually scoring the goal that gave them advantage on the hour mark. Kroos played a fantastic in-swinging ball in from the left hand side, with Bellingham making a late run in to head home to record his third goal in his first two games for Los Blancos.
Bellingham continued to show his worth when he received the ball from a driving run from Valverde to play it to Vinicius who took one touch before deftly picking out the top corner with his right boot to give Real Madrid a 3-1 win, with the Brazilian imitating Bellingham’s celebration in show of appreciation for his new teammate.
Osasuna 0-2 Athletic Club
A return to the Sadar Stadium saw Osasuna welcome Basque rivals Atheltic Bilbao for their first home game of the season.
It was the away side who took the lead when Nico Williams found his brother Inaki with an excellent right footed in-swinging cross where Inaki outmuscled Johan Mojica to bundle the ball into the back of the net to put Los Leones one nil up.
Ten minutes later, Bilbao doubled their lead when 21 year-old Nico once again showed his talent to drift round two Osasuna defenders, bamboozling them with quick stepovers, before sliding the ball to the near post for Gorka Guruzeta to tap the ball past Aitor Fernández.
Despite Bilbao’s opening goals rocking Osasuna, the home side created the vast majority of the following chances with Garcia and Mojica both going close to reducing the deficit.
On the 59th minute tempers boiled over when Oihan Sancet came to blows with David Garcia, with the referee sending of Sancet to leave just ten men on the field for Athletic.
In the dying minutes, the second dismissal of the game came when Chimy Ávila launched a two footed lunge on Alejandro Berenguer, provoking a furious reaction from the Bilbao players for the dangerous tackle as Osasuna slumped to a two nil defeat against fellow European hopefuls.
Girona 3-0 Getafe
Following Getafe’s draw against Barcelona on the opening weekend of the season, Jose Bordálas’ team once again faced up to the prospect of playing against a Catalonia based side, this time in the form of Miguel Muñoz’s Girona.
A trip to the Estadi Montilivi awaited, with Girona coming into Sunday’s game off the back of a draw against Real Sociedad last week. It didn’t take long for Girona to open the scoring when in the eleventh minute 19 year old Sávio, recently signed from Atletico Mineiro, beat his man to play a lofted cross in for Yangel Herrera to take full advantage of.
A second goal followed ten minutes after the break when Daley Blind played a ball over the top for young Spanish full back Miguel Guttierez to loft into the box, with Cristian Stuani latching onto the ball with an excellent first time right footed volley to double their advantage.
While Getafe threatened to come back into the game, it was Girona who scored the third goal of the game. Once again, space was found on the left flank with Sávio firing in a low ball of which Getafe goalkeeper David Soria spilled to give Stuani the perfect opportunity to grab his second of the game and finish the contest.
Barcelona 2-0 Cadiz
With Raphinha suspended for Sunday’s game and Ronald Aruajo out injured, Xavi chose to adopt a slightly more attacking 3-4-3 formation, with 16 year-old Lamine Yamal and Gavi coming into the side as Barcelona looked to get off to a winning start at their temporary home, the Montjuic Olympic Stadium.
The first real chance of the game came when Frenkie De Jong played an in-swinging lofted ball into the box, with Robert Lewandowski rising high to direct a headed effort which was straight at Jeremias Ledesma in the Cadiz goal.
On the stroke of the half hour mark, teenage sensation Lamine Yamil went closest to opening the scoring when he beat his man before attempting to bend the ball into the far corner which was saved low by Ledesma.
Despite Barcelona’s domination, Cadiz posed threats on the break with Andre Ter Stegen forced into a smart save when Roger Martin was put through.
The break through for Barcelona eventually came in the 82nd minute when new signing Ilkay Gundogan weaved a ball through to Pedri from the edge of the box who slid it past Ledesma to give Barcelona a warranted lead.
Minutes later Robert Lewandowski found Ansu Fati to double Barca’s advantage, however, the goal was quickly ruled offside with the Pole offside in the build-up. However, in the 94th minute Lewandowski’s flick on set Ferran Torres in on goal, with the Spaniard finishing calmly to give Barcelona their first win of the season.
Real Betis 0-0 Atlético Madrid
Following last weekend, in which both Real Betis and Atelético Madrid recorded impressive wins against Villareal and Granada respectively, Sunday evening’s game looked set up to be an entertaining one.
However, the contest at the Estadio Benito Villamarín did not live up to it’s billing with the sides playing out a goalless draw, with just a solitary effort on target in the heat of Seville.
Betis arguably started the best with Aitor Ruibal setting up Abner to fire narrowly wide inside the opening two minutes with Ayoze Perez brushing the side of the net from outside the box twenty minutes later.
Antoine Griezmann arguably had the best chance of the game to open the scoring when Cesar Azpilicutea teed the Frenchman up, however, the forward could only miss the ball in mid-air.
Despite Betis’ 14 efforts, it was Atlético who had the only on target effort when Mario Hermoso headed an Antoine Griezmann corner goal bound to represent one of the few chances in a drab affair.
The ‘of the weeks’
Goal of the week: Vinicius Jr vs Almería, the Brazilian opened his accounts for the season with a fine goal. The Brazilian winger was teed up by Bellingham to expertly pick out the top corner from just inside the box, giving his side a comfortable win away from home.
Stat of the week: Despite Almería losing 3-1 against Real Madrid and enjoying less of the ball (43%), the Andalusian side created 20 efforts on goal with an attempt for every 21 passes they made.
Skill of the week: Nico Williams vs Osasuna, the winger turned Rubén Garcia inside out to leave the player stumbling to the floor before hyponotising Ruben Peña with excellent stepovers allowing him to play an fast ball into the near post to claim his second assist of the game in Athletic’s two nil win over their Basque rivals Osasuna.