Football finally got underway in Spain last weekend and fans were treated to some amazing La Liga action on Matchday 1. Barcelona and Real Madrid both secured comfortable victories while Atletico Madrid were held to a draw against newly promoted side Alaves.
Elsewhere, Valencia and Sevilla enjoyed contrasting starts to their campaign while Villarreal started off with a hard-fought draw. Although it has been just one match, there were quite a few things we learnt from Matchday 1 of La Liga:
#1 Marco Asensio is the future of Real Madrid
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The Real Madrid youngster has captured everyone’s imagination with his performances in the last few matches and he lived upto his growing reputation once again when he scored Madrid’s second goal with a sublime chip in their 3-0 victory against Sociedad.
Rafael Nadal convinced president Florentino Perez to sign the young Spaniard, and if the first few impressions are anything to go by, Madrid must not waste any time in signing Nadal up as a scout. Asensio is blessed with good pace, close control and dribbling skills and is also capable of scoring spectacular goals as he displayed in the UEFA Super Cup and in his La Liga debut against Sociedad.
"I have to make the decisions and I decided Asensio should start and he did well, as did Isco and James," said Zidane after the match, who admitted deciding on his starting 11 had given him "a headache". Not afraid of taking on defenders and capable of creating something out of nothing, it is fair to say that Asensio is currently ahead of more established stars like James and Isco in the pecking order.
#2 The only thing standing between Barcelona and absolute domination – defence
Barcelona showed us once again how devastating they can be when they completely outclassed a mediocre Real Betis side 6-2 in Camp Nou. The Blaugrana played some beautiful football and were absolutely dominant throughout the match.
Although Neymar was busy guiding Brazil to a historic Olympic gold medal, Suarez and Messi ensured that his absence was not felt by putting in stunning performances. Arda Turan also had a particularly good game easing fears about their failure to sign a back-up forward.
While their attacking play was impressive as always, one area where they might need to improve is their defence. Umtiti who was making his debut had a really good game for Barcelona, but, the full-backs Jordi Alba and Sergi Roberto kept bombing forward and did not show enough defensive work rate. Against better opposition, this might prove to be costly.
Barcelona are looking very very strong once again, and if they tighten up their defence, they might well be unstoppable this season.
#3 Atletico Madrid will find it difficult to keep up with Barcelona and Real Madrid this season
Atletico Madrid were one of the unluckiest teams last season, narrowly missing out on both the La Liga and Champions League. Diego Simeone’s men, however, won everyone’s respect with their tireless and inspirational performances.
This time around, the Rojiblancos did not enjoy the perfect start to their La Liga campaign where they were held to a 1-1 draw against newly promoted side Deportivo Alaves. Alaves came well prepared and organised themselves superbly at the back and Atletico without Griezmann struggled to break down their stubborn defence
Against teams which keep the ball and play good football, Atletico are extremely dangerous as they are adept at getting behind defences and attacking on the counterattack, however, when they are asked to break teams down, they usually struggle. Atletico are heavily reliant on the brilliant Griezmann and an injury to their star forward might just derail their entire season.
Their new signing Kevin Gameiro might have got a goal on his debut (penalty), but he also missed plenty of good chances. With Real Madrid and Barcelona looking almost invincible this season, Atletico Madrid just seem to lack the firepower to mount a serious challenge for the La Liga title.
#4 Sevilla might be the most exciting team in La Liga
The week’s most exciting game was undoubtedly Sevilla’s ridiculous 6-4 victory over Espanyol. Unai Emery might have left Seville, but they seem to have found an able replacement in former Chile manager Jorge Sampaoli.
Pragmatism and caution are not words which are used too often by Sampaoli. The Argentine showed his commitment to attacking football when in his very first conference as Sevilla manager he said:
"I am tremendously passionate about attacking. We'll be an extremely attacking team that allows us to control and seek our objectives and not wait for them to find us."
There was no doubt about the intent as Sampaoli’s side kept pressing forward consistently. With Vietto, Vasquez, Wissam Ben Yedder, Ganso and Kiyatake, Sevilla have a squad more than capable of blowing away the best defences. The only worrying part is thier defence is also capable of getting blown away by any attack.
Watching Sevilla’s matches promises to be amazing fun this season.
#5 Valencia are sinking and sinking fast
It was just in 2003/04 season when Valencia were crowned La Liga champions. The future looked bright and promising and Valencia looked extremely capable of challenging Barcelona and Real Madrid for many years to come. Fast forward 12 years and things cannot be further from the truth.
Valencia kicked off their campaign against Las Palmas and were expected to start with a victory. However, their shambolic performance led to a 4-2 defeat and Ayestaran, the Valencia manager definitely has a lot of problems on his hand.
Added to the fact that Valencia have a lot of Financial Fair Play problems and they might be forced to sell two of their best players – Shkodran Mustafi and Paco Alcacer. Valencia will find it tough to qualify for Europe this season.
Here are all results from La Liga Matchday 1:
Malaga 1-1 Osasuna
Deportivo 2-1 Eibar
Barcelona 6-2 Real Betis
Granada 1-1 Villarreal
Sevilla 6-4 Espanyol
Sporting 2-1 Athletic Bilbao
Real Sociedad 0-3 Real Madrid
Atletico Madrid 1-1 Alaves
Celta Vigo 0-1 Leganes
Valencia 2-4 Las Palmas
