La Liga: The Saturday That Was

By: Ryan | April 6th, 2008

Yesterday saw two important La Liga games played out in Spain (Well, one a bit more important than the other).

Mallorca 1 – Real Madrid 1

The most important of the two matches (for most people) saw Real Madrid draw 1-1 at the Ono Estadi against Mallorca.

The first half saw Madrid dominate the islanders all over the pitch. Madrid looked to be retaining their spark from the 3-1 beating against Sevilla last weekend. Wesley Sneijder put Madrid up 1-0 right before half time and it looked to be all roses for the madridistas.

But, a Fabio Cannavarro handball that went uncalled by ref Daudén saw the match take on a new turn.

As the teams came out for the second half, Daudén was set to make things right. This was accomplished by sending off Sergio Ramos in the 65th minute for nothing more than a simple clumsy challenge that wasn’t worthy of anything more than a simple foul.

Upon the sending off, Madrid endured a barrage by Mallorca, and finally the game was equalized in the 71st minute with former Madrid youth player Bojan Valero netting the equalizer with a curling ball passed Iker Casillas.

The Mallorca push was lead by star striker Dani Güiza (who in my mind is one of the best strikers in Spain).

Madrid were lucky to get out of Mallorca with one point as the last 20 minutes was all Mallorca, with a few shots ringing off the post and barely missing target (provoking many a ‘HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUY’ by the Spanish fans).

To me, the result isn’t that surprising since Mallorca already have two wins over Real Madrid since January 1st, beating them twice to oust the blancos from the Spanish Copa del Rey.

Osasuna 0 – Recreativo 1

Sinama Pongolle was the loan scorer on the night as Recreativo took three points from Osasuna, and also moved themselves out of the relegation zone for the time being and only one point behind Osasuna in the table.

Earlier this week, Pongolle won an appeal on a yellow card picked up last weekend, and was able to participate in yesterday’s match, proving to be a deciding factor.

The rest of the La Liga matchups today are:

17:00 At. Madrid – Almería
17:00 Levante – Valladolid
17:00 Zaragoza – Betis
17:00 Athletic – Espanyol
17:00 Racing – Deportivo
17:00 Murcia – Valencia
19:00 Sevilla – Villarreal
21:00 Barcelona – Getafe