La Liga round-up: Lionel Messi saves Barcelona’s bacon as Real Madrid stay top of table – but only after Steven N’Zonzi briefly fired Sevilla top
NO better place to start than at the Mestalla where Lionel Messi remained ice cold to fire in a 94th-minute match-winning penalty for Barcelona against Valencia in a game that had everything.
Offside goals, poor refereeing decisions, Andres Iniesta’s appalling injury, missed chances – you name it, we saw it in what ended up as a classic 3-2 thriller.
Messi’s first was highly-debatable. Luis Suarez, a clear two yards offside, jumped over the ball to unsight keeper Diego Alves.
Interfering with play? Absolutely.
Munir El Haddadi got the locals in the mood with his first goal for Los Che against his parent club and when Rodrigo fired them into the lead, the Mestalla erupted.
Cue Suarez to silence it once again and then Messi to add the gloss with 10 seconds of injury time left.
Barca then controversially were pelted with a bottle.
Atletico Madrid had an equally tough assignment on the road against Sevilla and fell to their first defeat of the season thanks to a 73rd-minute winner from ex-Stoke midfielder Steven N’Zonzi. Exchanging passes with Vietto, his direct running meant that he held Atleti’s defenders off long enough for him to pick his spot.
Diego Simeone said in his pre-match press conference that Sevilla were title contenders. This all-action performance proves it and Samir Nasri in particular was again outstanding for the Andalusians.
Athletic Bilbao had lost their last 11 games in a row at the Santiago Bernabeu and when Karim Benzema opened the scoring after just seven minutes, that poor record never seemed likely to change.
Despite Isco’s industry, Real were unable to capitalise and went in at the break level, Sabin Merino with the equaliser. Chance after chance went begging for both sides in the second period, Inaki Williams guilty of missing two one on ones.
Sub Alvaro Morata made up for a miss of his own, stabbing home the winner on 82 after a perfect cross from Gareth Bale to send Real to the top of the table.
Six goals at Espanyol and Eibar’s Jose Luis Mendilibar will be furious with his side. After scoring two at home last week and still being downed by Osasuna, Sergi Enrich, a Diego Reyes own goal and one from Kike saw the visitors up 3-0 at the break.
Hernan Perez’s 64th-minute goal saw the visitors collapse, Pablo Piatti (73) and then Leo Baptistao completing the turnaround in injury time.
Week nine began with Real Betis’ visit to bottom club Osasuna on Friday night. Joaquin lobbed the visitors into a first half lead but Roberto Torres pegged them back with a fine drilled strike two minutes after half time.
Both teams had settled for the draw until Felipe Gutierrez’s speculative 35-yard free-kick flew in on 92 minutes to seal the points for Gus Poyet’s side.
Hugo Mallo became the first Galician to score in the derby between Celta Vigo and Depor since 1973!
His opener was cancelled out by a fizzer from Raul Albentosa.
But the game belonged to Iago Aspas as the ex-Liverpool man tore Depor apart scoring a brace which sandwiched Fabian Orellana’s third.
Granada grabbed a valuable, and deserved, point at home in an intense and captivating 0-0 draw with Sporting Gijon but the only side without a win in the league travel to Barcelona next!
A defensive 4-5-1 formation from Alaves was undone easily at the Anoeta as Real Sociedad romped to a 3-0 win.
Carlos Vela, a target for MLS side Atlanta United, was inspired throughout, and his 87th-minute goal was a just reward for his industry.
Xabi Prieto and Willian Jose were the other scorers for the Basques who now sit comfortably in seventh.
El Madrigal went crazy once Cedric Bakambu secured all three points with an injury time second to defeat Las Palmas, a 2-1 win that sends Atleti tumbling to fourth place.
Kevin Prince-Boateng’s stunning volley at the end of one of the best passing moves you will see all season ensured that the Canary Islanders’ bright start was rewarded but Nicola Sansone’s penalty just after the hour laid the foundations for Bakambu’s late-late show.
Malaga stormed to their biggest victory of the season against a poor Leganes side who had the woodwork to thank for the defeat note being heavier.
Ignacio Camacho was the architect scoring the fourth after Jony, Gonzalo Castro and Sandro Ramirez had already netted.