La Liga’s Good Day, Bad Day - Round 35

GOOD DAY

Valencia

SaturdayâÂÂs 3-0 win over Real Madrid was shows exactly why, every September, the pea-brained La Liga Loca calls for silence, stands on a chair and tipsily tips Valencia to win the title by 50 points.

Ignore the fact that the Real Madrid players werenâÂÂt exactly cranking up the oophm-o-meter on the night - especially Fabio Cannavaro during David SilvaâÂÂs goal - and just get worked up over the wondrous ways of the front four of Mata, Villa, Silva and Joaquín.

Nor forgetting the excellent Pablo Hernández of course.

Once again, La Liga Loca is going to tip the men from Mestalla for glory next season. Providing someone comes along with a one-billion-euro-sized bag of cash, that is.

Otherwise, itâÂÂs Ever Banega and Edu running the show in the upcoming campaign in what is likely to be a more knee-trembling football affair. But in two very different ways.


Silva sees off Real

Luis Fabiano

More often or not, the Sevilla strikerâÂÂs frequent tumbles in the box result in yellow cards rather than penalties.

But on Saturday, O Fabuloso turned back the clock to last season when he was a bit special, by winning a spot-kick and coming up trumps with SevillaâÂÂs second in the 3-1 win over Mallorca.

FabianoâÂÂs timely return to form to aid the must-be-knackered-by-now Freddie Kanouté may well be enough for Sevilla to hold on to their third placed spot and give potential new coach, Ernesto Valverde, Champions League football next season.

Athletic Bilbao

All 230,000 Athletic fans heading to Mestalla for their match-up against Barcelona on Wednesday night can do so in the warm and snugly knowledge that their safety for another season in la Liga has been assured.

Joaquín Caparrósâ men moved onto the 44-point mark after a 1-0 win over Betis. More remarkably it was a victory achieved using just one first team starter.


Bilbao: Safe for another season

Getafe

In all honesty, the team is still more than a little rubbish with manager Michel admitting that all he can do is try to maintain the spirits in the Coliseum camp for the final matches of the season.

SundayâÂÂs 3-0 win against Osasuna was an awful affair with chances few and far between, the visitors barely trying and the card-happy ref Muñiz Fernandez sending two players off for no good reason. Again.

The most entertainment to be had was to contemplate what would happen if a Benny Hill style slapping was delivered to Vicente del BosqueâÂÂs head with the Spain manager sitting just two rows in front of La Liga LocaâÂÂs long-limbed reach.

The answer was very little and a heck of a lot less entertaining than had his predecessor, Luis Aragonés, been sitting in the same spot.

90 minutes of âÂÂRaúl for Spain!â songs would soon have had his bubbling brains exploding all over the stands.

Deportivo

Sixth. Jesus.

Diego Forlán

It was perfect night for La Liga Loca in Vicente Calderón.

The crowd turning against the Atleti president at 2-0 down. A massively drunk man being propped up in his seat by his less frazzled friends. Watching Carlos Kameni wander past and realising that he could rip your head off with one hand. And another brilliant display from Diego Forlán.

Once again the 27-goal striker saved AtletiâÂÂs awful back-four, which was as high as Michael Phelps for 90 minutes, but was on the right side of a lot of dodgy decisions from the flag-wavey linesman.

AtletiâÂÂs Champions League future now boils down to another big night in the Calderón next Sunday, this time against a Silva-suspended Valencia.


Business as usual for Diego

BAD DAY

Barcelona


Unfortunately, La Liga Loca must come clean and confess that it has barely seen a minute from this match due to being in transit from the Coliseum to the Vicente Calderón - and nearly ending up in Cordoba, as it happens.

So it is more than happy to believe Pep GuardiolaâÂÂs claim that âÂÂthe side didnâÂÂt have enough gasâ to play all the way to the final whistle in the 3-3 clash with Villarreal.

Sadly for the Camp Nou crowd it looks like the league title will be won at around midnight next Saturday when Madrid are mauled in El Madrigal.

Andrés Iniesta

God is a Chelsea fan, it would appear, after the midfielder is in danger of missing the Champions League final with a muscle tear.

Real Madrid

âÂÂWhen your head says âÂÂnoâÂÂ, itâÂÂs hard for your legs to say âÂÂyesâÂÂ" noted Josep Maria Casanovas in Sport.

La Liga Loca suspected that Real Madrid would be running on fumes in their match in Mestalla on Saturday night and predicted a draw.

But it had no idea that the footballing juices in the Bernabeu camp had been squeezed so severely. Juande Ramos has cancelled MondayâÂÂs day-off and dragged the players back into training as punishment for a performance against Valencia branded as âÂÂapatheticâ by El País.


"Well it's obviously not my fault..."

Recreativo, Numancia

Bye-bye

Betis

Good grief, that was truly bad from Betis. âÂÂThis team deserves to go down,â wrote Tito Gonzalez, a fed-up fan, in AS after the 1-0 defeat by AthleticâÂÂs second string.

Racing Santander

The often-sparring halves of La Liga Loca have tried to work out which team it would most like to see go down along with Recreativo and Numancia this season. And for once, the blog came to an agreement.

Sporting must stay up simply because of their fantastic travelling fans. Osasuna are filthy and fighty and worthy of their Primera spot. Betis are just too entertaining off the pitch to lose to la Segunda. Getafe are down the road and Espanyol have a shiny new stadium and Ivan de la Peña.

So, itâÂÂs a big sorry to Racing Santander who are being willed by the blog to sink into the second division. But with just two points needed to stay up, it ainâÂÂt going to happen.

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