🇪🇸 La Liga News, Match Previews, Results, Discussions - 2020/21 Open Thread

Miralem Pjanic isn’t happy about his lack of playing time at Barca :angry:

:speaking_head: "Should I play more? Yes, that’s what I want.

"When the coach called on me, I always did well, I played good games.

“I don’t know what more than that I could do.” [Gazzetta dello Sport]

11 Likes

Koeman Criticizes Packed Schedule And Speaks On Dembele Injury Ahead Of Barcelona’s Juventus Clash

FC Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman has criticized soccer’s packed schedule and has spoken on Ousmane Dembele’s injury ahead of a meeting with Juventus in Europe on Tuesday.

First asked on tomorrow’s clash in his prematch press conference, Koeman said that the team’s goal “is to win every game, play well and get first place in the Champions League [group]. We have three points’ advantage and we won 0-2 at their ground, so we have a lot of options.”

Next was Ousmane Dembele and his hamstring knock. “It’s a shame to lose another player because of an injury,” Koeman lamented. “He noticed something in the second half when he came on, [and] I thought it was nothing. [But] it’s a shame because he was [playing] well. He has a past with injuries and he has to recover and try to be okay.

“That’s one more reason to complain about the schedules. I don’t know who puts them [together], but if you have to play on a Tuesday night in the Champions League, for the sake of the Spanish teams you can’t play the game before like this [at 21.00 on a weekend night]. Especially when defending my players, [who come] home at three or four in the morning. We’re the team that has played all five away games at nine o’clock at night. It’s not a help for a Spanish team if you have to play in the Champions League on Tuesday.”

13 Likes

KOEMAN: I TOLD BARCELONA PLAYERS HOW ‘PISSED OFF’ I WAS WITH POOR FORM

Barcelona have been in a dreadful run of form that has seen them pick up just four wins from their first 10 league games.

On Saturday the Catalan side lost their fourth game of the season in a 2-1 defeat to Cadiz in what has now been the club’s poorest start to a campaign in 30 years.

Koeman’s side are now 12 points off league leaders Atletico Madrid after just 10 games, as the Dutch coach faces increasing pressure to turn things around.

mvf9slllkw1h2lsfga5j

16 Likes

FT: Valladolid 3-2 Osasuna

Weissman at the double as Real valladolid makes it 3 wins out of 5! :purple_heart:

12 Likes

Zinedine Zidane on whether Karim Benzema is the best French striker in history: “For me, yes. More than 500 games, all the goals he’s scored, his record speaks for itself. For me, he’s the best. It is very clear.”

Do you agree with Zidane on this? :thinking:

15 Likes

Karim Benzema has both scored and assisted inside the opening 15 minutes for Real Madrid vs. Eibar.

Racking up his 10th and 11th league goal involvements of the season.

13 Likes

Karim Benzema has become the all time leading French scorer in Europe’s top-5 leagues with his 176th goal tonight. He overtook Thierry Henry, who was on 175.

A legend of the game.

13 Likes

OFFICIAL: Barcelona have confirmed Phillipe Coutinho will be out for three months after undergoing knee surgery.

10 Likes

Laliga Week 17 Fixtures (All times in BST)

9 Likes

:es: Top scorers in La Liga this season:

Gerard Moreno - 9
Leo Messi - 9
Luis Suarez - 9
Iago Aspas - 9

:thinking: La Liga is the only one of Europe’s top five leagues without a goalscorer in double figures

8 Likes

Giovanni Simeone: The striker Atletico Madrid fans want to replace Diego Costa

Atletico Madrid have been working to find a replacement for Diego Costa since the striker left the club at the end of December.

Lyon’s Moussa Dembele appears to have won the race to the Wanda Metropolitano, with the Frenchman close to becoming an Atletico player. Real Sociedad’s Willian Jose had also been in the running.

There is one forward, though, who would be a fairly popular choice amongst supporters of Los Rojiblancos - and it’s neither Dembele nor Willian Jose.

7 Likes

Highest goalscorers in LaLiga this season

Messi🇦🇷 - 11
Moreno🇪🇸 - 10
Aspas🇪🇸 - 9
Suarez🇺🇾 - 9
Benzema🇫🇷 - 8
En-Nesyri🇲🇦 - 8
Oyarzabal🇪🇸 - 7
Llorente🇪🇸 - 6
Morales🇪🇸 - 6
Joao Felix🇵🇹 - 5

:goat: leading the Pichichi race

barcelonas-argentinian-forward-lionel-messi-smiles-during-the-spanish-picture-id1228754792

7 Likes

:pear: Having sat top after ten matches in LaLiga, things have gone pear-shaped for Real Sociedad, winning just one of their last nine…

:handshake::handshake::handshake::x::x::x::white_check_mark::handshake::x:

kevin-rodrigues-of-real-sociedad-de-futbol-celebrates-with-his-team-picture-id848500836

7 Likes

Antoine Griezmann has both scored and delivered an assist in a same Liga game for the 3rd time this season, already as many times as in the entire last campaign. He made an assist in consecutive Spanish top-flight games for the first time since November 2018 (also 2).

antoine-griezmann-of-fc-barcelona-celebrates-after-scoring-his-teams-picture-id1206451974

7 Likes

Lionel Messi’s last two LaLiga games:

:soccer::soccer: vs. Bilbao
:soccer::soccer: vs. Granada

Back-to-back braces in the league for the first time since March 2019. :boom:

lionel-messi-of-barcelona-celebrates-after-scoring-his-sides-second-picture-id955410340

7 Likes

Barcelona’s Lionel Messi :argentina: has scored 11 goals in La Liga 2020/21 (two goals against Granada), the only player to score 10+ goals in 15 consecutive seasons in the competition’s history.

:fire::fire::fire:

barcelonas-argentinian-forward-lionel-messi-smiles-during-the-spanish-picture-id1228754792

9 Likes

Toni Kroos :de: attempted 121 passes against Osasuna (113 passes completed), the most by a Real Madrid player in a La Liga game this season.

6 Likes

Sergio Busquets :es: made his 600th appearance for Barcelona in all competitions, becoming the fourth player to reach this milestone for the club after Xavi Hernández :es: (767), Lionel Messi :argentina: (752) and Andrés Iniesta :es: (674).

7 Likes

Messi becomes the first player in LA liga history to score 10+ goals in each of his last 15 seasons.

5 Likes

Patience is running out for Hazard as Spanish press begin to turn on him.

One and a half years after leaving Chelsea and signing for Real Madrid Eden Hazard is being compared to Gareth Bale by Spanish media – and he is not coming out of the comparison at all well.1610392544937

9 Likes