Real Madrid lead after La Liga’s second week

The second round of La Liga is in the books and Real Madrid have taken over first spot on the table thanks to goal differential. Ridding Marco Asensio’s back, as he earned two penalties converted by Sergio Ramos and Karim Benzema, the Madrid side won 4-1 on a comeback away to Girona. Gareth Bale and Benzema again rounded out the scores after Borja Garcia had put the hosts ahead at the 16^th minute.

Elsewhere a recently sodded and thus poor, pitch did not prevent Valladolid and Barcelona from playing a tough, tight match decided on Ousmane Dembele’s 57^th minute winner. Atletico Madrid did the same at home winning a hard-fought match against Rayo Vallecano 1-0, via an Antoine Griezmann 63^rd minute strike.

Alaves were held 0-0 at home by Real Betis while Celta Vigo won 2-1 away to Levante, Athletic Bilbao drew at home 2-2 with Huesca, Espanyol defeated visiting Valencia 2-0, Sevilla were held 0-0 by visiting Villarreal, Getafe won 2-0 at home over Eibar, and Leganes and Real Sociedad drew 2-2.

The early table had Real Madrid on top, Barcelona second, followed by Sevilla, Espanyol, and Athletic Bilbao. The top scorers were Levante’s Jose Luis Morales and Sevilla’s Andre Silva with three apiece, followed by Real Madrid’s Gareth Bale, Huesca’s Alex Gallar, Leganes’ Nabil El Zhar, Real’s Karim Benzema, and Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, all with two goals each.

The only real surprises of the very early season were Dembele’s strong start, the chemistry among Real’s trio of Asensio, Bale, and Benzema, the fact that only Eibar and Rayo are pointless, and finally, that with 50 goals scored Valladolid, Betis, and Alaves are the only teams not to have tallied yet.

It is too earl to make any reassessments to our predictions but it is interesting to note that the Spanish Media, usually overactive even at this early La Liga stage, seem to be relatively quiet by comparison to previous seasons. Perhaps the news of the moment has been the Spanish players’ stance on the “competitive, mid-season games to played in the USA” issue.

Finally, Cristiano Cristiano Ronaldo’s bicycle kick goalat Juventus in last year’s Champions League quarter-finals in Turin was awarded the UEFA Goal of the Season.