La Liga Discussion Thread 2014/15 Season.

Turtwig

TV3 are listing the Bayern game. So, I guess that means Sky/Setanta has the Barca game.

klose

Benzema confirmed out of the game v atleti now also, big chance for atleti.

Dirty Dingus McGee

I just heard on TV3 that the Copa Del Rey final is being played in the Camp Nou.

Why was it decided to give Barca home advantage and why are Bilbao not seriously objecting like threatening to boycott the game.It seems a completely unfair as the decision was made late in the competition at least when this happens in European final UEFA don't have a clue who will be in the final when they make the decision.

Turtwig

Both sides wanted it to be played at the Bernabeau.

Real Madrid were pissed at that suggestion though.

Not sure if it's on in the Nou Camp though.

The Golden Miller

Why are Real Madrid even allowed a say? They should be told what's what by the governing body, and if they don't like it then tough.

Very unfair on Bilbao. What's wrong with Espanyol's old ground with the running track to make it fairer if it's to be in Barcelona? Or the Mestalla? Ye it was there last year, but still better than giving Barca complete home advantage. Or since they were planning on going to Madrid anyway, why not the Vicente Calderon? Or why not give Bilbao home advantage considering the have a brand new stadium to show off ? I'd be kicking up a serious fuss if I was involved with Athletic.

So every time Barca get to a final that is planned to be in the Bernabeu, the location will have to be changed?

HalloweenJack

The Golden Miller wrote: »

Why are Real Madrid even allowed a say? They should be told what's what by the governing body, and if they don't like it then tough.

It's their stadium.

The Golden Miller wrote:

Very unfair on Bilbao. What's wrong with Espanyol's old ground with the running track to make it fairer if it's to be in Barcelona? Or the Mestalla? Ye it was there last year, but still better than giving Barca complete home advantage. Or since they were planning on going to Madrid anyway, why not the Vicente Calderon? Or why not give Bilbao home advantage considering the have a brand new stadium to show off ? I'd be kicking up a serious fuss if I was involved with Athletic.

So every time Barca get to a final that is planned to be in the Bernabeu, the location will have to be changed?

Not just Barca, Barca and Athletic. Remember the cup final where the national anthem was booed? This is the complete opposite of what Madrid fans and bigwigs want/represent. They'd be hugely embarrassed and outraged to have something similar happen under their own roof.

I don't agree with the logic whatsoever but I can guarantee you that's what it is and, Santiago Bernabeu being their stadium, they should be free to do what they want.

They really should look for a neutral stadium though.

MisterAnarchy

The Catalan derby is on now ,Espanyol vs Barcelona

Barcelona are 2 up after 26 minutes

These 3pm kick offs are a right pain in the backside :mad:

MisterAnarchy

I thought this was interesting

Sofia Balbi has revealed that her husband Luis Suarez lied to her in the aftermath of his infamous World Cup bite and acted as if nothing had happened after the match.

The unsavoury incident with Chiellini in Brazil was the third time Suarez had bitten an opponent after previously doing the same to PSV Eindhoven's Otman Bakkal while playing for Ajax in 2010 and Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic while at Liverpool in 2013.

Sofia told Canal 10 in an extensive interview that at first he refused to admit it had happened.

"He told me he hadn’t done it" she said. "That is what he had in his head and even I began to believe it. But the television and radio spoke only about the bite and after 10 days of us being alone he told me the truth."

"On the day of the game I phoned him and asked what he had done. He responded with ‘what?’ The same had happened in England and I insisted: ‘Again?’ He replied: ‘I haven’t done anything. Are you not happy because Uruguay qualified?"

Johner

Cracking game between Celta and Real. 2-2 after 28 mins.

Johner

Half time and it's 3-2 to Real.

Turtwig

Listening to sky's audio you'd swear it was a training session.

Cracking game. Real with a huge slice of luck to be ahead.

dfx-

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

The Catalan derby is on now ,Espanyol vs Barcelona

Barcelona are 2 up after 26 minutes

These 3pm kick offs are a right pain in the backside :mad:

Fantastic dummy by Suarez

LuckyGent88

Celta really playing well here in the second half. Creating plenty of opportunities and should have had a peno too.

Rayne Wooney

Celta playing like a team stuck on ultra attacking in FIFA

Excellent entertainment

LuckyGent88

Lovely take and finish from Hernandez. Very easy goal though

klose

Nolito giving carvajal a runaround tonight, 10 goals and 11 assists this season for him so far, great numbers.

Johner

Harsh on Celta but that's what happens when you don't take your chances.

Turtwig

Carvajal and Ramos both get very soft bookings to miss the game against Almeria with Sevilla and Valencia to come. Hmmm...

Andersonisgod

Like water will always eventually find a way through, this Barcelona attacking trio will always find the cracks in the defence.

Messi delivers the most beautiful, yet deadly, lofted through pass, Suarez considers, he swivels and he strikes. Genius!

3-0! More genius, Barcelona win it high up the pitch, Neymar dances through the defence and scores. The front 3 have a goal each.

Andersonisgod

Brilliance! 4-0! Xavi creates and scores this goal, a curler from outside the box. The Camp Nou rises to applaud one of the best ever.

Harry Palmr

Wait till next season when Suarez is up to speed!

GavRedKing

Tuned in before the 2nd goal.

Clinical finishing from Barca.

Andersonisgod

The Camp Nou applauds, the football world applauds a goal that only Barcelona could score. Its vintage Barcelona, it's that half touch football, it's those incisive movements, it's the undeniable class that only those in blaugrana can produce. 5-0.

Andersonisgod

Half time and we all rise to salute the best team on the planet.

Inquitus

Am over in barcelona for work, sitting in the Nou Camp watching genius at work, and what a city it is to boot.

MisterAnarchy

Messi is too good

ronjo

The scorer of every goal in first half then became the assister for next goal. Suarez should therefore assist the 6th

Andersonisgod

In my wildest dreams I couldn't imagine a team playing this well, it's out of this world, the stuff us mere mortals couldn't even imagin. Messi produces a great moment in a game of great moments, in a season where this team could win everything.

MisterAnarchy

Didnt these guys hold Barcelona to a draw earlier in the season ?

Rayne Wooney

If Madrid get through Sevilla and Valencia unscathed the league will probably be pretty much decided by the Atletico Barca game after Barca play Bayern

I wonder if Atletico will turn up that day

MisterAnarchy

Rayne Wooney wrote: »

If Madrid get through Sevilla and Valencia unscathed the league will probably be pretty much decided by the Atletico Barca game after Barca play Bayern

I wonder if Atletico will turn up that day

Thats a big if though .
Sevilla are unbeaten at home all season ,I think they will turn Real over at the weekend.

ronjo

ronjo wrote: »

The scorer of every goal in first half then became the assister for next goal. Suarez should therefore assist the 6th

An he does.... 5 times its happened

Pighead

Two goals for Messi means he overtakes Ronaldo as leagues top scorer (I think). Think he has 40 now.

MarkY91

I love andersonisgod!

curry-muff

Inquitus wrote: »

Am over in barcelona for work, sitting in the Nou Camp watching genius at work, and what a city it is to boot.

Booked a holiday over to see this game thinking it was tomorrow and it got moved to tonight, have you any idea when it was changed, we're going to have to chase refunds

Qwerty27

Thats unfortunate curry muff, even ore disappointing after such a performance this evening.

On a similar note, I'm going to be in Malaga on last day of the season and they are at home to Seville. Seville might still be pushing for Champions league spot and have retained Europa League by then.

Just wondering if and when fixture will be decided, think games still kick off over the course of the weekend, even in the last round am I right in saying? Tickets on sale are quite cheap so might pick one up, just hope game has a reasonable start!

Professional Griefer

That Messi goal though..wow

MisterAnarchy

That's a startling 102 goals for the Barcelona front 3 this season ,49 Messi, 32 Neymar and 21 Suarez
66 goals in La Liga ,more league goals than the whole Chelsea team combined

HalloweenJack

Story breaking in Spain that Atleti and Madrid will both face the same two-window ban as Barca do for the same thing, funny stuff with signing underage players.

From Marca's English site:
http://www.marca.com/en/2015/04/29/en/football/spanish_football/1430261787.html

Can imagine a similar deal will be done where they can have it delayed for the summer for an appeal and they will sign all the players they can before it's enforced starting in January 2016.

NIMAN

Barca are unreal to watch at the minute. Just enjoyed watching the highlights of their win tonight.

Having said that I did sit through the Hull Liverpool game earlier. Jez, the more you think about it, Liverpool are supposed to be a 'big club'. Well they certainly believe they are, their manager thinks they are, he thinks he's 'it', let compare them to Barca - its like comparing Scottish Third Division to CL football.

MisterAnarchy

HalloweenJack wrote: »

Story breaking in Spain that Atleti and Madrid will both face the same two-window ban as Barca do for the same thing, funny stuff with signing underage players.

From Marca's English site:
http://www.marca.com/en/2015/04/29/en/football/spanish_football/1430261787.html

Can imagine a similar deal will be done where they can have it delayed for the summer for an appeal and they will sign all the players they can before it's enforced starting in January 2016.

Could be an interesting and frenzied summer ahead as Real could try and corner the market like the Duke brothers .

dfx-

Suarez's second goal my pick of them, the Xavi touch...he must have eyes in the back of his head..

However I did quite like the keeper's dive for Messi's second. He had no more chance of getting to it than I did here in Dublin.

MisterAnarchy

NIMAN wrote: »

Barca are unreal to watch at the minute. Just enjoyed watching the highlights of their win tonight.

Having said that I did sit through the Hull Liverpool game earlier. Jez, the more you think about it, Liverpool are supposed to be a 'big club'. Well they certainly believe they are, their manager thinks they are, he thinks he's 'it', let compare them to Barca - its like comparing Scottish Third Division to CL football.

Its been a very poor Premier League this season
Utd have been woeful to watch bar the last month or so ,Liverpool have been harmless,Chelsea have been Chelsea,effective but ugly and City have been inconsistent as usual.

Liverpool have only scored 47 goals so far this season,they managed over 100 last year ,just goes to show how valuable Suarez and to a lesser extent Sturridge were.
City also scored over 100 goals last season ,they are this seasons highest scorers with 70 ,which is very low.

Good defending in the league cannot be used as an excuse for the low amount of goals scored because the standard of defending is definitely on the wane as highlighted by the English teams poor defending in Europe.

All this extra money being pumped into the league certainly isn't improving the standard of football ,its leading to massive inflation .

I sometimes feel watching English football is like filling up on bread before the steak comes along.

dfx-

The EPL is poisoned by the money washing around. There's no ambition for 15 clubs other than to stay in it.

In Spanish football, it makes largely no difference if you get relegated, barring exceptional circumstances like Racing and Oviedo. Numerous clubs come straight back up. There is a reward to performing better, there is reward in developing players.

English clubs actively avoiding the Europa League and all cup competitions is an indictment on its 'sharing the wealth' policy to be honest. So why would they bother in most league games then either...

NIMAN

To be fair now, you couldn't say the likes of Everton, WBA, Hull etc in recent games v the big sides didn't try.

But their marketing is superb, best in the business. In recent years they have started to admit that La Liga is technically better, but they still claim the EPL is 'better entertainment'.

Having watched some of both leagues this season I disagree. Compare Barca and MAdrid this season to watching Chelsea grind out the title. City, Utd, Liverpool have all been average enough too.

I often think that a lot of the middle road teams in Spain still try to play football when they met the big teams. OK so often they concede heavily for trying, but you really see Liga teams parking the bus at Nou Camp or the Bernabeu.

dfx-

Everton would be the outlier in terms of their ability and ambition to take on the bigger sides as they were at least ambitious enough to try in the Europa League. Their position belies their true capability.

Some might say there's a naivety to the likes of Rayo and Levante going to attack at the Nou Camp and Bernabeu, but perhaps 'having a go' hasn't gone out of fashion yet when TV millions are not at stake...

NIMAN

... or maybe they see no point in getting 11 behind the ball and trying for a 0-0?

They have all been brought up to try to play football to win, irrespective of the opposition?

Turtwig

La liga has definitely been the most enjoyable imo these past two seasons. Definitely this season. No team parks the bus against at the Nou camp or bernabeau but some do play very defensively and commit heavily to counter attacking play. Others like celta go toe to toe. Either way, it tends to make for cracking matches.

I think a huge factor in it is the insignificance of goal difference.

Then people say Barca/Madrid walk the league. It's funny because often their games have more intensity than most premier league affairs. Barca Valencia, Chelsea utd. Both on the same day. If they were on the same time I'd watch the Spanish match. That's how much my interest in the epl has waned. I'd say right now the top ten in la liga would beat the top ten in the Epl. (Definitely Sevilla, Valencia, Villarreal would all be making claims for a top four epl finish.) Because the bottom sides still play technical football I'd expect the epl sides pragmatism to triumph as they'd be less error prone.

NIMAN

I think the fact that the 'lesser' EPL teams look down on the Europa League shows a strange logic.

For me, you should be trying to do well in Europe, it can only make you a better team. Look at Sevilla. Or indeed Atleti are the perfect example. They took the EL seriously and now look how far they have come.

Everything in England is so insular. Its all about the EPL and nothing else matters. I know if I was a fan of Everton I would rather have a Euro adventure instead of mid tabel mediocrity every season. Never gonna get relegated, never gonna win anything.

MarkY91

NIMAN wrote: »

Barca are unreal to watch at the minute. Just enjoyed watching the highlights of their win tonight.

Having said that I did sit through the Hull Liverpool game earlier. Jez, the more you think about it, Liverpool are supposed to be a 'big club'. Well they certainly believe they are, their manager thinks they are, he thinks he's 'it', let compare them to Barca - its like comparing Scottish Third Division to CL football.

I'm a Liverpool fan and I think LFC fans who say we're a big club are clueless. I agree that we mostly do think that though.

Next season is our.....ah feck it. :L