Barcelona stretched their lead at the top of La Liga to ten points thanks to a hard earned win at home to struggling Valencia on Sunday. Brazilian ace Raphinha scored the winner early in the game but a second half red card for Ronald Araujo let Los Ches back into the match and Barca were happy to hear the final whistle.
Valencia’s worst fears seemed to be coming to fruition when the Blaugrana went ahead with just 15 minutes on the clock. When Sergio Busquets threaded a through ball beyond the Valencia defence former Leeds United star, Raphinha, raced onto it and smashed his shot high into the net past a helpless Giorgi Mamardashvili. There was nothing he could do about that one but the Valencia keeper made a great save moments later to keep out a shot from Ansu Fati when Raphinha put him through.
On another day Fati could have scored hat trick as he had one shot charged down, another effort flew wide and early in the second half he hit the post. And that was after Ferran Torres had also hit the upright from the penalty spot when Hugo Guillamon had handled in the area.
It just seemed a matter of time before the second goal would come but then the game took a twist, midway through the second half, when Araujo was red carded for an over the top foul on Hugo Duro.
The La Liga 2023 betting odds strongly back the Blaugrana for the league title but they made hard work of this game against a side in the bottom three.
Atleti’s Six of the Best is painful for Sevilla
Diego Simeone’s team likes a 1-0 win but they couldn’t help themselves on Saturday when struggling Sevilla took a trip to the capital. Jorge Sampaoli’s side has been dogged by inconsistency and we saw the worst of them at the Civitas Metropolitano as los Rojiblancos went on a goal frenzy.
The pre match SBOTOP odds backed the hosts and they were well on the way to completing a league double, having won 2-0 in Seville earlier in the campaign, when Memphis Depay scored a quick fire brace on his first start for his new club. Youssef En Nesyri halved the deficit from close range, with his third goal in four games, to keep it interesting at half time, but it was all one way traffic after the break.
Antoine Griezmann continued his fine form with a brilliant long range strike to make it eight goals for the season and Yannick Carrasco took the game away from Los Sevillistas on 69 minutes. Alvaro Morata matched Depay’s early exploits with a late double to make it 6-1, and Sevilla’s misery was compounded when Papa Alassane Gueye was sent off when he picked up a second yellow, with the game long gone.
It was the pick of the La Liga 2023 results this weekend and Atleti leapfrogged Real Sociedad into third place after La Real drew a blank with a goalless draw at home to Cadiz; meanwhile Sevilla, winless in three games, are in 16th place and just a single point above the drop zone.
No team is too good to go down and it could still be a nervy run in for Sevilla fans.
Villarreal succeed where Barca failed
Last week Barcelona went down to a shock defeat away to Almeria but Villarreal had no such problems in Andalusia and came away with a 2-0 win to cement their place in sixth. Second half strikes from Gerard Moreno and Jose Luis Morales won the points on a day when Villarreal attacking midfielder Samuel Chukwueze put in a man of the match performance with a classy display.
The Yellow Submarine dominated the game with over 70 per cent possession and 17 shots to six, with six to zero on target but, while keeper Pepe Reina had a quiet game, their strikers left it a little late. Gerard Moreno came on as a 69th minute sub and he scored the opener on 76 minutes when he took a pass from Chukwueze and fired a beauty into the top left corner. And Chukwueze was the provider again when he swung over a cross which Jose Morales met and slotted home the second with just two minutes left on the clock.
The Yellow Submarine is motoring well in La Liga and the Europa Conference League, but Almeria have dropped back into the drop zone and their heroics against the Blaugrana are now a distant memory.
So as another great weekend of football comes to a close, Barcelona’s lead has extended to ten points and now it’s over to second placed Real Madrid who have a stern Sunday night test away to fifth placed Real Betis.
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