La Liga Back With A Bang – Weekend Preview

La Liga

Matchday 9

Celta Vigo vs Alaves – Balaidos, Vigo

Celta will be eager to take to the field once again as they attempt to turn their early-season fortunes around. Since the Celticos stunned Atletico Madrid 2-0 at the start of September, Antonio Mohamed’s men have gone five games without a win despite scoring in each of those encounters. Three consecutive draws were followed up by a 2-1 defeat at Sevilla before the break with leading scorer Iago Aspas failing to find the net in successive games.



Alaves are flying high after a solid start to their campaign in 2018. Four wins from their first eight fixtures sees the Babazorros occupy sixth place and astonishingly just two points off the league leaders Sevilla. Manuel Sanchez’ 95^th minute winner condemned Real Madrid to their second defeat of the season in Alaves’ last outing, leaving them on an impressive run with just one loss in their last seven matches.

The pair exchanged blows in La Liga last season each registering home victories over the other. The corresponding fixture ended 3-1 to the hosts in May last year with the hero against Madrid – Manuel Sanchez – on the scoresheet that day, extending Alaves 100% home record against Celta to three matches.
 
Villarreal vs Atletico Madrid – Estadio de la Ceramica, Villarreal

The Yellow Submarines have struggled thus far in 2018, notching up just two wins from their eight matches. They are winless in thee matches in al competitions since beating Athletic Bilbao 3-0 away from home a month ago. Cameroonian forward Karl Toko Ekambi is the man in form for Villarreal at the moment, scoring three goals in his sides last four matches and could be the one to watch this weekend.



Atletico are unbeaten in seven matches in all competitions heading into this fixture, since defeat at Celta Vigo, including a goalless stalemate in the Madrid Derby against bitter rivals Real Madrid at the end of September. Angel Correa’s 74^th minute strike secured all three points against Real Betis and ensured Diego Simeone’s men went into the international break on a positive note ahead of an intensely tough run of fixtures.

Los Rojiblancos, despite their recent form, head into this fixture having not beaten Villarreal in any of their last six meetings in La Liga, since a 1-0 win in this fixture in April 2015. Enes Unal scored twice in the final ten minutes of the match, in the corresponding fixture last season, completing a sensational turnaround after Antoine Griezmann had given the visitors the lead from the penalty spot in the first-half before seeing Vitolo sent off in the closing moments of a tense affair.

Barcelona vs Sevilla – Camp Nou, Barcelona

The Blaugrana find themselves on a rather unfamiliar run of poor form. With just one win in their last five matches, a 4-2 victory over Tottenham Hotspur in the UEFA Champions League, Ernesto Valverde’s men have slipped behind Sevilla in the early title race in what is turning out to be anything but an ordinary campaign in Spain. Lionel Messi seems to be hitting form at just the right time ahead of the arguably the clash of the season thus far, with three goals in his last two appearances.



Sevilla have been simply sensational this season, boasting the second-best attack only behind this weekend’s opponent’s Barcelona, as they aim to mask a defence that shipped a whopping 58 goals last term. Despite a shock 2-1 defeat at FC Krasnodar in the UEFA Europa League at the start of the month, Sevilla have won their last four matches in La Liga on route to the summit including a hugely convincing 3-0 win over Real Madrid.

Barca have already beaten Sevilla once this season coming from behind to win 2-1 in the Spanish Super Cup back in August, extending their winning run to seven matches against them. Sevilla’s last win against Barcelona came in this fixture in October 2015 with Michael Krohn-Dehli and Vicente Iborra scoring in the space if six second-half minutes, ending a 16-match and nearly ten-year winless run against Barcelona in La Liga.