In Spanish Football’s La Liga, eleventh placed Real Sociedad defeated fifth placed Real Madrid 2-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium on Sunday. The loss capped an up and down stretch by the merengues that has seen them eke out 1-0 victories against minnows Rayo Vallecano and Huesca, lose 0-3 at home to CSKA Moscow in the UEFA Champions League, and win the FIFA Club World Cup over Japan’s Kashima Antlers and Al-Ain of the UAE.
The home embarrassment was particularly painful as the officiating was abysmally one sided with referee José Luis Munuera Montero treating the assembled 53,412 in the stadium to a master class in one-sided refereeing. Munuera Montero managed to give Lucas Vazquez a two-yellow send-off for a second foul that was much less one than many Sociedad was dishing out, and not being called on, missed an obvious penalty on Vinicius Junior, and routinely called fouls in Sociedad’s favor that seemed more like an attempt to derail any comeback attempt by Madrid.
Santiago Scolari seemed not to have any
Celta Vigo lost 1-2 at home to Athletic Bilbao, Eibar and Villarreal drew 0-0, Girona drew at Levante 2-2, and Sevilla and Atletico Madrid evened out at 1-1, for the only ties in the round. Barcelona defeated Getafe away 2-1, Rayo Vallecano beat hosts Real Valladolid 1-0, Alaves won at home 2-1 over Sevilla and Huesca did the same with visiting Real Betis. Hosts Espanyol defeated visiting Leganes 1-0.
The 18th Round ended with Barcelona atop the table with 40 points followed by Atletico Madrid at 35, Sevilla at 33, Alaves at 31 and Real Madrid at 30, out of the Champions League qualifying zone. The top scorers stood with Barcelona’s Lionel Messi tops with 16 goals and 10 assists, followed by teammate Luis Suarez with 12 goals and four assists, then Cristhian Stuani, from Girona, with 11 goals, followed by Iago Aspas with 10 goals and two assists, and rounding the top five was Wissam Ben Yedder with nine goals and five assists.
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