La Liga 2016/17: Real Madrid 3 - 3 Las Palmas: 5 Talking Points

#2. Las Palmas epitomise the brilliance of La Liga

The brilliant Sunny Sagar had just last week written about why La Liga was better than the Premier League, and what he said in that lovely insouciant stye of his driven home by the performance from supposedly ‘lowly’ Las Palmas. Coming to the Bernabeu at the end of a 4-game losing steak (hell, just coming to the Bernabeu) would have seen most teams take the pragmatic step of setting up shop to save themselves. But not Las Palmas.

Committed to the ideal of passing, attacking football, the unfancied islanders were utterly magnificent, attacking from the word go – passing the ball around the hallowed turf with the audacious confidence of an ersatz Barcelona. They were brilliant going forward – equalising right from kick-off on the only occasion they went behind - and even under the most intense pressure refusing to ditch their way off play, the ideal of passing it out from the back.

A measure of conservatism might have seen them protect the 3-1 lead they got against 10-man Madrid (an advantage they got because they frustrated the daylights out of Madrid, and specifically, Bale), but they are cut off a different cloth. In fact with better finishing (more of that to come), this game could well have finished a drubbing, just not in favour of the team you would have thought of before kickoff.