Barcelona’s lead at the top of the La Liga table stays at four points after Hansi Flick’s side pulled off a statement 2-0 victory over high flying Villarreal.
With wins also for the Madrid giants the Big Three sit at the top of the Primera Division table at Christmas, while Villarreal will head for the festive celebrations in fourth. In my SBOTOP preview of the Villarreal vs Barcelona match I said the Blaugrana would sink the Yellow Submarine and so they did, with goals from Raphinha and Lamine Yamal, while the hosts ended up with ten men after Renato Veiga saw red late in the first half.
Raphinha set Barca on their way to an eighth successive league victory when he was tripped by Santi Comesana in the penalty area. The referee pointed to the spot and the Brazil star climbed to his feet to calmly slot the ball home. That was on 12 minutes and just three later Raphinha almost made it two when he picked up a corner from Frenkie de Jong and rifled in a fierce shot which ricocheted back off the crossbar. Barcelona were already on top when Veiga was sent off for a foul on Yamal and that signalled the end of Villarreal’s dwindling hopes.
Yamal made sure of the three points when he scored his third goal in five La Liga starts, and Barcelona’s four point lead over Los Blancos remained intact. The La Liga 2025 betting odds took a turn towards Catalonia a few weeks ago and that’s where they’ll stay until the New Year at least and, on the evidence of the first half of the campaign, probably until May.
In other La Liga 2025 news Atletico Madrid picked up an impressive 3-0 win away to Girona which leaves Diego Simeone’s men handily placed in third, but nine points behind Barcelona and five adrift of Los Blancos.
Girona started and ended the match in the bottom three but they showed plenty of fight, sharing possession with their illustrious visitors and competing with nine shots and two on target, but Los Rojiblancos had the quality and the clinical finishing to collect all three points. After making a poor start to the campaign Girona have recovered well, with just one defeat in five outings and eight points in that time. But they were sunk by half time as goals from Koke and Conor Gallagher, who had not long been on the pitch replacing the injured Nico Gonzalez.
Girona continued to press but without success against a well oiled Rojiblancos defence and when Antoine Griezmann fired home in injury time it was the icing on the cake for the men of Madrid. It was a harsh lesson for Girona who ended the weekend a point behind Valencia in the last safety spot, after Los Ches picked up a 1-1 draw with Real Mallorca on Friday night.
Mbappe matches CR7
Real Madrid made it back to back league wins with a 2-0 victory over Sevilla to keep the pressure on Barcelona; and Kylian Mbappe equalled Cristiano Ronaldo’s record of 59 goals in a calendar year for Los Blancos. The France star leads the race for the Pichichi with 18 goals from 18 games and his strike on Saturday helped to cement Real Madrid’s second place.
Xabi Alonso’s men came flying out of the blocks when the in-form Jude Bellingham rose high to glance in a cross from Rodrygo with just seven minutes on the clock. Sevilla are having a good season after a period in the doldrums and they had their chances to level with 14 shots and five on target but their task was made nigh on impossible when Marcao picked up a second yellow card for a daft challenge on Bellingham.
When the excellent Rodrygo was fouled by Juanlu Sanchez in the 86th minute, Mbappe had the perfect 27th birthday present and he duly converted the penalty to level with the great CR7. And the win took a little off the growing pressure on Alonso.
Elsewhere, 19th place Real Oviedo frustrated Celta Vigo in a goalless draw while bottom club Levante picked up a first point in six attempts with a 1-1 draw at home to Real Sociedad thanks to a 94th minute equalising penalty. When Carlos Alvarez was fouled by Arkaitz Mariezkurrena, Adrian de la Fuente stepped up to give the 16,000 home fans something to cheer at last.
But Elche fans had a super Sunday and hardly stopped celebrating as they watched their team thrash Rayo Vallecano 4-0 to finish the weekend in ninth.
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