La Liga – Bbc-football.com

Jose Mourinho signs first player as Manchester United’s coach

Chelsea, La Liga, Manchester United, Premier league, Real Madrid No Responses »

Jun 082016

Jose Mourinho made his first signing as Manchester United’s coach by bringing in Ivorian defender Eric Bailly from Spanish side Villareal. The central defender joined the Red Devils from the Spanish side on a four-years contract which could be extended further for two more years.

Bailly who has appeared 15 times for his country Ivory Coast joined the Yellow Submarines just 18 months back. he has been pipped by the Portuguese coach as the next Sergio Ramos and that is probably why United went for him since they could not get the Real Madrid captain. Although Ramos is the more experienced one of the pair but what Bailly lacks in experience he makes up for in strength and toughness.

“Eric is a young central defender with great natural talent. He has progressed well to date and has the potential to become one of the best around,” former Chelsea manager who took over from Louis van Gaal in May, said.

The young Ivorian has played 47 times for Villareal since joining from Espanyol back in 2015. He was part of Villareal’s defence line that conceded only 35 goals in 38 La Liga matches last season. The signing of Eric Bailly is a good one for Manchester United as they look to build up a good team and challenge for the Premier League title next season. The player believes that working with the current United coach would help him develop in the right way, at the right club. He would most likely mount the central defence position along side Chris Smalling in the coming season.

Diego Simeone staying put at Athletico Madrid

Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Champions league, La Liga, Manchester City, Real Madrid No Responses »

Jun 042016

Athletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone has rejected approaches from French club Paris Saint Germain. According to Sky Italia the Argentine is keen on remaining at the Vicente Calderon even after his second European defeat at the hands of bitter rivals Real Madrid.

Diego Simeone has earned the respect and admiration of many for turning the Spanish side into serious European contenders even though they dont spend big in the transfer market. He seems to know what to do to get the players ticking for him. Athletico has come up to challenge the dominance of both city rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona at the helm of the La Liga. Paris Saint Germain in particular are keen on bringing the Argentine coach to Paris in the coming months.

PSG’s owner Nasser Al-Khelaifi revealed his disappointment at the current state of the club in European competitions although they came close this time but were knocked out in the semi-finals and that raises suggestions that current coach Laurent Blanc would be replaced this summer.

Diego Simeone has called on Athletico’s board to support their rise with more funds to spend in the transfer market. It is unlikely that PSG would let him go without a tough battle but we would see to that in the coming days.

Sevilla Scores A Hat-Trick Of Europa Trophies

Champions league, Europa League, La Liga, Liverpool, Premier league, Sevilla No Responses »

May 192016

Spanish La Liga club, Sevilla has made history by carrying the Europa League trophy for three Consecutive times with an astounding victory over Liverpool. The match started out as expected with both sides testing each other at the opening stages but it was Liverpool who opened the scoring first through a wonderful curl in the edge of the area by striker Daniel Sturridge. After that goal the game almost looked far fetched for the Spanish side with Liverpool hitting them with everything they had. The English Premier League side also had three penalty claims denied by the referee and ended the first half of the game leading Sevilla by 1-0.

Sevilla, obviously outplayed in the first half of the game came back impressively in the second half and restored parity with just seconds into the game with a goal from Kevin Gameiro. The game continued balanced until Sevilla took control and a fine team play ended up with Coke driving a curling effort far into the Liverpool. Liverpool looked to come back into the game but with just 20 minutes left to play, Coke guided another ball past the goalkeeper in the eighteen yard box. There were initial misconceptions that the Sevilla player was in an offside position but replays showed that although in an offside position he got the ball from a back pass from one of the red’s defenders. At this point, Liverpool’s chances of a silverware and possible Champions League qualification were lost.

Jurgen Kloop’s men put up a good fight for the trophy, but Sevilla proved to be the Champions of the night.

Tuesday Champions League Round-Up

Atletico Madrid, Champions league, Juventus, La Liga, Manchester City, Manchester United, Premier league, PSG, Real Madrid No Responses »

Nov 032015

Tuesday night was the first night of match day 4 in the UEFA Champions League. The night started out with Astana hosting Spanish La Liga club Atletico Madrid. After thrashing them an astounding 4-0 in Madrid two weeks back, Diego Simeone’s men just couldn’t cracking down a rather spirit Astana side and that saw the match end in goalless draw. Manchester City displayed a first class first half performance to qualify for the knock out stages of the competition with a 3-1 victory over Sevilla. The Premier League club had to wait till the dying minutes to grab a winner the last time the two met but the case was different this time as the tie was decided in the first half with goals from Raheem Sterling, Fernandinho and Wilfred Bony was enough to give them a deserved win.

Wayne Rooney ended what could have been a third straight goalless draw for the red devils with a header in the 79 minute at Old Trafford. The coach’s trust in his captain finally paid off when the England international nodded in from close range to give Manchester United a 1-0 victory over a rather defensive CSKA Moscow. The game between Real Madrid and French champions PSG was also decided in the first half. The only goal came from the substitute Nacho Fernández who had come on to replace Marcelo as the later could not seem to shake off the injury he picked up. PSG playmaker Marco Veratti was also taken off in the early minutes of the game due to an injury.

The biggest winners of the night were Shaktar Donetsk who thrashed Malton an astounding 4-0. The first came in the first half with the remaining three coming in the second half. Juventus were held to a 1-1 draw against Borrusia M’Gladbach while PSV pulled a surprised 2-0 victory over Wolfsburg. Benfica also got a 2-1 victory over Galatasaray on the night. The events of match day 4 continues tomorrow and some of the teams would join City and Madrid in qualifying for the next round.

Lionel Messi Topples Cristiano Ronaldo in Brazil

Barcelona, La Liga, Lionel Messi, Real Madrid 1 Response »

Oct 292015

In a recent poll carried out in Brazil where 25 top coaches where asked ho they would prefer to sign if given the chance between the two players, Lionel Messi got an amazing 20 out of 25 votes. the four time Ballon D’Or winner who is most likely to lift a fifth one in his career if he wins the next one was the favorite to also win the best player award if only Brazilian coaches had to vote. The remaining five coaches picked Ronaldo over Lionel Messi, according to them they prefer him because he was more goal oriented than his rival.

Lionel Messi has been on the sidelines since for the past three weeks due to an injury he sustained and is poised to return on time for his team’s clash against Real Madrid in November. Himself and his father are also facing tax charges by the Spanish football federation for tax evasion, although it seems that he is off the hook but his father is not. while all these has been happening with the Argentine ace, his rival Cristiano Ronaldo was recently awarded the European golden boot award for his goal scoring exploits in the last season. He also went on to become Real Madrid’s all time highest goal scorer toppling Raul’s 323 goals for the club and doing so with even fewer matches.

Cristiano Ronaldo … A Living Legend making history and waiting for future challenges

Cristiano Ronaldo, La Liga, Real Madrid No Responses »

Oct 052015

Last Wednedsay, specifically in the night of 30th September 2015, Cristiano Ronaldo, the international Portuguese and the player of the Royal team Real Madrid football club pulled the rug from under the feet of Real Madrid legend Raul Gonzalez, and balanced with him the number of goals scored in white jerseys, which is 323 goals.

Without a doubt, this historical top scorer title in Real Madrid will not last longer be a partnership between Raul and Cristiano, it does not seem For those who follow Real Madrid that Cristiano Ronaldo will accept this partnership, and not for a long period Ronaldo will put his name alone on the top of the list.

The Portuguese scored 10 goals this season so far with 5 goals in 6 games of La Liga in addition of the same number of goals in the Champions League but in only two games.
Goals of Ronaldo last Wednesday in front of the Swedish Malmo not only put him alongside Raul top scorer in the club historically, but gave for the Portuguese star a chance to reach a goalscoring balance up to 501 goals in his career between the clubs and the national team.

A Number made of Cristiano Ronaldo a living legend beating around the Bernabeu and stadiums of the old continent, and the Number will make the Real Madrid current generation of fans proud of this star like old fans was proud of Famous Fi Stefano.
Spotting the Light on the mysteries of the Portuguese career, and how For he made his name famous in European stadiums focusing on records he achieved here and there:

– Cristiano Ronaldo is the first player in England who could achieve all the awards given to the best player in the Premier League by FA or by journalist awards.

– With 55 international goals, the Portuguese Cristiano is the only through history who exceeded the balance of 50 goals with the Portuguese team shirt.

– Cristiano Ronaldo is the top scorer in the Champions League throughout its history with 82 goal.

– Ronaldo is the owner of the largest number of goals registered in a single season of Champions League, so it was in 2013-14 with 17 goals in 11 games.

– In La Liga, Cristiano scored 28 hat-tricks Real Madrid, more than any other player who passed through history of the Spanish competition.

– The Portuguese legend is the fastest player in the history of La Liga who went up to 150 goals scored (in 140 games), and the fastest as well to reach 200 goals scored (in 178 games).

– Cristiano Ronaldo is the only player in the world who won the Golden Boot award with two different clubs.

So.. What remains to Cristiano Ronaldo with his historical titles to grave his name alone without a rival and be the greatest scorer over the history of football?

A simple look and a quick comparison between Lionel Messi of FC Barcelona and Cristiano Ronaldo in some aspects, may reveal to us what lacks the Portuguese.
Argentina star for FC Barcelona set a record of more number of goals scored in a season of La Liga and that was in 2011-12, where he scored 50 goal, while Ronaldo for the best record in this aspect is the 48 in the last year.

Messi also put another record registered in his name represents scoring 82 goals in one season (2011-12), and it seems that Cristiano Ronaldo is far from this record, with a total maximum number of goals scored in a season is 69.
And it remains for the Argentinian Lionel Messi another record which is superior to Ronaldo with it being the best scorer in the history of La Liga with 289 goals while Ronaldo has has just 230 goals in La Liga.

After all this, Cristiano Ronaldo still has in his sleeve what beats the Argentinian, given the scoring rate in La Liga, the record of Ronaldo is 1.11 goal in the match while Messi recorded a rate of 0.9, which has the same scoring rate than Spanish league legend Telmo Zarra.

What waits for Cristiano Ronaldo?

There is an end of every beginning, but until his retirement from football,Ronaldo will be able to break down more numbers, which comes in the forefront his ability to be the fastest player in the history of La Liga to reach the balance of 250 goals, this record is registered in the name of Zarra, who scored this number in 272 games, whereas, Cristiano has to score 20 goals in 44 games in La Liga to come to exceed the number of Zara, which is not excluded at all.

Perhaps superiority over Lionel Messi in El Clasico will be ordered with a special taste for Ronaldo, who lags behind Messi with 7 goals in total goals scored by the duo in the Clasico, the absence of Messi, for the next Clasico ,probably, could give Ronaldo a chance to reduce the difference and wait for the future if it holds some news.

Another challenge is perhaps waiting for Cristiano though it seems difficult, it is to exceed the number of participations of previous captain Iker Casillas in the Champions League, where Ronaldo has 117 games in the time that Casillas recorded 152 post, the arrival of Real Madrid to advanced stages of the competition, the fitness of Ronaldo his stay with the Royal team for seasons would give him a chance to reach a record that seems somewhat out of reach.

And the challenge that seems impossible for the Portuguese star in the future, is to achieve the title of international tems’ top scorer in football history, which is underlined by Iran’s player Ali Daei as the number of 109 goals in 149 matches (average: 0.73 goal in the game).

For Ronaldo, he has 55 goals in 122 international appearances for the national team (average: 0.45 goals per game).

Even if Ronaldo’s most important challenge is to be the best scorer on the international level with European teams, then it also seems difficult to realize that while Puskas scored 84 goals in 85 games.

La Liga Derby : Many Preparations for Atletico and Real Madrid

La Liga, Real Madrid No Responses »

Oct 042015

Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid began their preparations for the upcoming derby match between them Sunday in La Liga, under lot of uncertainties and lack of clarity surrounding the way to play their respective after their games Wednesday in the Champions League.

While Real Madrid overcome two-zero on the Swedish Malmo field away from home in a game that was only accomplished by the achievement of the Portuguese player Cristiano Ronaldo who set a new record, Atletico fell at home 2-1 against Benfica because of the weakness of its defenses.

Rafael Benitez, the new coach of Real Madrid, started the application of his new idea about the defenses of the Royal team, where Real received only one goal in eight games he has played this season.
However, the main problem is the offensive line and in its ability to also grab the admiration of the fans.

Benitez realizes the dangerous circumstances of his team who accepted his technical leadership when he was presented to the media and the public, where at that time he said: “The team has to play way better to win and he has to have a clear picture of what they want to play, we have to attack and score goals and play well if that’s possible. ”

In fact, Real Madrid, mainly, focus on defense and not receiving goals, based on his football stars in the leadership of the attack, this is exactly what happened in Malmo when Cristiano scored both goals of his team, which did not happen last Saturday, when the team Madrid’s fell into the trap of a draw against Malaga.

The Spanish newspaper “as” said, Thursday: “Benitez strategy is practical somewhat, depending on the substitution system between the players, in order to create a strong team on the pitch but lacks the aesthetic appearance.”

And now it’s all about anticipating what Real Madrid will present during the current season, and checking whether to continue to pursue the same strategy, or coach will choose to obey the wishes of the masses in hopes that some of the changes.
And Atletico Madrid suffers from the same period of doubt and confusion, but different from his city rival for the reason of his remarkable stumble in this season’s beginning.

Coach Diego Simeone Relies on filling the midfield with talented players, who can control the ball, but they fail to control the game and create opportunities.
The resort of Atletico Madrid to involve players like Angel Correa and Yannick Carrasco, a sign of the desire of this team to expand his aesthetic horizon, that’s why Atletico Madrid Brought the players Jackson Martinez and Luciano Vietto. however, and in spite of all this, there still an issue with the team’s engine who is making noise more than usual.

It seems clear that Atletico Madrid lost the other one his most important characteristics, namely defensive solidity, and that appeared clearly in front of Benfica, where the team conceded two goals that were not of the quality of goals that usually get into the net of Atletico.

The Spanish newspaper “Marca” said: “Atletico live a moment of confusion.”

The Derby of today will reveal the situation of both teams, in the time that require the victory after they both lost points during the latest round of the Liva BBVA.

2 days are not enough for FC Sevilla to recover before facing FC Barcelona

Barcelona, La Liga No Responses »

Oct 022015

It looks like the defeat against Juventus, Wednesday night, wasn’t enough for Sevilla in this week. They just have 2 days before facing FC Barcelona in Liga BBVA Saturday night.

Unai Emery, Sevilla coach admitted that Juventus had the complete susperiority in the game where his team is defeated 0-2 in the Champions League Wednesday, and said that the team defended well but he was in need of a greater offensive force.
Sevilla Europa league’s last champion reached the homes goal once compared to 24 try for Juventus, including six shots on goal.

Emery said in a press conference: “We must look forward, it is the experience that we gain and should learn from to evolve.” He added: “Because the feeling is that the team has not developed enough and we need to attack more.”
Sevilla participate in the best of the continental tournaments after winning the Europa league title for the second time in a row last season.
And The team began the season badly, it occupies 16th place in the Primera Liga with five points from six games.

Emery may feel more confident in the possibility of achieving a good result in Barcelona, due to injury of several players of BBVA and Champions League Champion, including Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Rafinha.
And Messi always rocked the goal of FC Sevilla, the Argentina striker became the top scorer in La Liga’s history with three goals, scored in the Andalusian team to lead Barcelona to win 5-1 last season.
In the second match in the spanish league last season, Sevilla came from behind with two goals at home to a 2-2 draw.

Emery said: “we have to feel passionate about Saturday’s game, now we must focus on the league (local) and help the players to recover.” He continued: “We must improve our position in the table, and there is no chance better than facing Barcelona, who will challenge us tomorrow.”

Barcelona loses Lionel Messi to knee injury

Barcelona, La Liga No Responses »

Sep 282015

Barcelona star Lionel Messi is set to be on the sidelines for at least 8 weeks after tearing his knee ligament in their 2-1 win over Las Palmas on Saturday. The treble winners still managed to win the game despite losing their star man just minutes into the first half. Lionel Messi tore his ligament after colliding in an awkward way with an opponent as he tried to shot from the edge of the area. The four time ballon d’or winner was left on the ground wriggling in pain after the tackle as the team medics came to his rescue. He received treatments on the sidelines and returned to action but he couldn’t deal with the pain and was substituted shortly.

At the end of the match, the team confirmed the news of Messi’s injury which would require about two months off the pitch to heal. Barcelona would now have to rely on the likes of Neymar and Luis Suarez to keep the team on top until Messi’s return. Situations like this was one the reasons why Barcelona bought Brazilian striker Neymar and he would have to step forward and fill in the void left by Messi. Eight weeks out means Messi would miss Barcelona’s league games against Sevilla, Rayo Vallecano, Eibar, Getafe and Villareal. After these matches comes the international break which would give the player more time to relax. But just after the international break is their league match against Real Madrid. If there are no complications with his recovery, the Argentine player would be back in time to face their rivals but Barcelona would prefer to have him play at least one match before that game or he could just sit that one out as well.

Madrid top La Liga table with two strikes from Karim Benzema

Atletic Bilbao, La Liga, Real Madrid 1 Response »

Sep 242015

Real Madrid are the now top of the La Liga table with two strikes from French striker Karim Benzema. He was the only goal scorer for the visitors in San Mames on Wednesday night with a goal from each half of the game to secure all three points for his team. Real Madrid was without a host of key players including current team captain Sergio Ramos. James Rodriguez and Gareth Bale are also sidelined due to injuries but goals from Karim Benzema ensured that the visitors left with all three points. The victory took Madrid to the top of the table on level points with Celta after their victory over Barcelona. Benzema was on fire all night for the visitors as he saw two blazed two efforts off-target in the opening 15 minutes. But he was rewarded for his efforts 4 minutes later as he latched onto a failed back passed and slotted home from close range. Atletic Club was the better team when the second half started and they were able to draw back on level terms through Sabin Merino. This happens to be the first goal Madrid has conceded this season, but Benzema was there again to give Madrid the lead again with his second for the night. On the other end of the pitch, Keylor Navas was called upon to make a series of saves which shows the goal keeper is not ready to available

Madrid talisman Cristiano Ronaldo went into the game hopeful of making history with his 500^th career goal for both club and country but he cut a frustrating figure as he could not convert all the chances made available to him. This victory sees Madrid secure top spot with 13 points from 5 games.

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