Two weeks into the new La Liga season and what has caught your eye?
Well, ‘Mbappe mania’ was always going to take centre stage and, in his first home game since joining Real Spanish champions Madrid, much focus was on the French captain.
By contrast, the winning and relentless structure at Madrid, appears to be a far cry from that at arch rivals Barcelona who last week even had to release Ilkay in a farewell message.
That was supposed to allow them to register new signing Dani Olmo in time for their first home match of the campaign, against Athletic Bilbao.
As if their efforts to open up enough salary space for Olmo to be registered were not embarrassing enough for a club of Barca’s stature, they weren’t even able to complete that task in time.
Thankfully for Catalonians, one of the heroes of the Spanish summer, Lamine Yamal, chose Saturday teatime as the ideal occasion to notch his first goal of the new campaign.
His 24th minute opener was wiped out when Oihan Sancet levelled from the penalty spot three minutes before the break.
It was left to the prolific Pole, Robert Lewandowski, to score the winner for the second weekend in a row as he pounced 16 minutes from time.
Points aside, if the financial embarrassment wasn’t enough, the tensions between the two clubs were clear in the stands.
That Barcelona have tried desperately to sign one of Lamal’s partners-in-crime at Euro 2024, winger Nico Williams, this summer has left the Athletic Club feeling their opponents have ‘crossed the line’ when it comes to their conduct.
The Basque club threatened to pursue legal action if the deal moved forward, and all of this has led to a bitter atmosphere and led to Athletic turning down an official invitation from the hosts for the traditional pre-match lunch between club directors.
Barca may have taken the points but there ain’t much pride right now.
Back to the champions – or ‘campeones’ as they say in Spain – and Madrid eased to victory over Real Valladolid at the Bernabeu.
They had to be patient as the visitors’ frustrated their illustrious opponents for 50 minutes until Federico Valverde made the breakthrough with a deflected effort.
To their credit, their disciplined approach continued to keep the scoreline down after that until two minutes from time when substitute Brahim Diaz doubled the lead to make the points safe.
By that point, Mbappe had left the fray and it was his replacement, 18 year-old Brazilian Endrick, who added gloss to the scoreline on his debut by powering an effort inside the near post in stoppage time.
Imagine how good they could be once Mbappe settles and Jude Bellingham returns!
Elsewhere, there were plenty of La Liga highlights across the weekend, beginning on Friday night when Villarreal snatched all three points on the road at Sevilla as new signing Ayoze Perez came off the bench to score a stoppage time winner at the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan.
It was a case of great start, great finish for the ‘Yellow Submarine’ as Arnaut Danjuma put the visitors ahead inside the opening 90 seconds before striker Dodi Lukebakio drew Sevilla level shortly before the break.
That was how it looked all set to stay until Perez pounced on a loose ball in added time.
Celta Vigo and Valencia were also in action on Friday night and it was the home team which made it two wins out of two.
Captain Iago Aspas netted for the second successive week and could even afford to see a spot kick saved as Oscar Mingueza and Fran Beltran joined him on the scoresheet in a 3-1 victory.
Diego Lopez had opened the scoring for Valencia.
It’s been a hectic week in the capital at Atletico Madrid with midfielder Connor Galagher finally arriving from Chelsea and Portugal forward Joao Felix, once one of the most expensive players in the world, heading in the opposite direction.
Diego Simeone’s men are third favourites for the title with the SBOTOP La Liga betting odds and showed why as they proved too strong for the team that beat them to third spot last term.
Goals from Antoine Griezmann and Marcos Llorente either side of half time did the damage as Girona were ultimately despatched 3-0.
Koke added the third in stoppage time in what was a far more convincing result than the balance of play.
All that means is that Celta Vigo and Barcelona are the fledging leaders after two games.
●●●
CHECK OUT OUR BLOG FOR MORE FOOTBALL STORIES & ODDS
Stay updated with everything sports and betting.
Follow us on social Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
