Barcelona draw at El Madrigal and Real Madrid miss the chance to go top of La Liga

Firework celebrations all around the world marked the start of 2010. After the Christmas break, the Primera Liga sides were rearing to go and it looked set to be a juicy weekend of action from Spain.

However there was to be no bang to the start of La Liga’s 2010 year even if the firework displays in Spain proved otherwise. League leaders Barcelona and second-place Real Madrid failed to take all three points from their fixtures with Villarreal and Osasuna respectively, both only managing to chalk up draws.

Saturday saw Barcelona take on a resurgent Villarreal at El Madrigal where Pedro opened up the scoring for the Catalans in the seventh minute after Thierry Henry’s shot on goal deflected off of the crossbar into the path of the 22-year-old who did not hesitate in scoring.

However Villarreal got a deserved equaliser when David Fuster scored in the 51st minute and he probably should have scored another two goals during the match to win the game for the home side. But albeit for Villareal’s superb performance at the Camp Nou, they failed to take their chances and the game ended 1-1.

Saturday also saw Valencia win 1-0 against Espanyol at the Mestalla with 6ft 7 in Nikola Zigic scoring the only goal of the game whilst the late kick-off between Atlético Madrid and Sevilla produced the only real fireworks of the weekend.

In what was dubbed a ‘miracle’ win by The Guardian’s Sid Lowe, Antonio Lopez scored the winner for Atlético Madrid in dramatic fashion after the game looked set to end 1-1. However the 94th minute goal sent the crowd at the Vincente Calderón into hysteria as Los Rojiblancos took all three points from the clash.

Sunday saw Osasuna play Real Madrid at the Reyno de Navarra and it was Madrid’s chance to go top of La Liga should they win in Pamplona following on from Barcelona’s draw against Villarreal on Saturday evening. However Real Madrid failed to take their chances and indeed the same was true for the home side with the match ending a terribly unexciting 0-0.

Madrid’s best chance came on the counter attack following Sergio Ramos’ brilliant/crazy/lucky (however you want to view it) clearance of the ball in front of Iker Casillas.  Ramos’ clearance was rapidly collected by Lassana Diarra who then delivered a long-range shot straight to Gonzalo Higuaín and with the help of a slipping Osasuna defender, the Argentine attempted a shot on goal. However a superb save by Ricardo denied the 22-year-old which kept the game on level terms with the game eventually ending 0-0.

Madrid’s manager, Manuel Pellegrini later said that “They [Madrid] hardly had a chance.” But as The Guardian’s Sid Lowe mentions in his match report and as Roberto Palomar replied to Pellegrini’s statement, ‘that’s a pretty weak argument for a club that boasts a budget the size of a government ministry and that was playing for top spot.’ Which is true. Madrid missed the opportunity to go top of the league on goal difference and but the draw took Osasuna into 12th position.

Real Madrid were not the only team to draw on Sunday evening as Sporting Gijon also drew 2-2 against Malága, Getafe moved up to seventh place as they got an 83rd minute goal against Valladolid winning 1-0, Almeria beat bottom of the league Xerez 1-0, Racing Satander won 2-0 against Tenerife and this season’s surprise package Mallorca kept up their winning streak by beating Athletic Bilbao 2-0.

Still if the New Year did not bring fireworks to Matchday 16 in La Liga this week’s Copa del Rey results certainly made up for it.

Copa holders Barcelona were left stunned as Sevilla produced a 2-1 upset at the Camp Nou on Tuesday evening whilst Valencia were beaten by the same  score line on Wednesday night by Deportivo La Coruña. Atlético Madrid could not produce another win following their last-gasp win against Sevilla on the weekend, being beaten 3-0 by Recreativo whilst Villarreal drew 1-1 against Celta Vigo and Racing Santander won 3-2 against Alcorcón – the side that humiliated and then knocked out Real Madrid in the early stages of the competition.

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Tags: Vaishali Bhardwaj