And the clock of survival is ticking! That is if you’re Osasuna, Deportivo La Coruña, Real Zaragoza, Mallorca, or Celta Vigo.

These are the bottom five teams in La Liga. The last three, right now Celta, Mallorca and Zaragoza, will be relegated. All five teams are really close on point so just about anything can happen in the final two weeks. As of this past weekend, here are the point standings of these teams:
Osasuna-  36 points
Deportivo La Coruña- 35 points
Real Zaragoza- 34 points
Mallorca- 32 points
Celta Vigo- 31 points

None of these struggling teams face each other in the final two matches of the season. For most of these clubs, relegation could mean financial disaster. Therefore they’ll have to fight tooth and nail in their final matches in order to survive. So grab your popcorn because it’s gonna be one wild ride of hope and desperation.

Zaragoza’s loss to Athletic Bilbao compounds sense of impending doom

At the other end of the table, Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Atlético Madrid are pretty solid in their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd spots. However, Real Sociedad and Valencia are still tied on points for 4th place and that last golden Champions League spot. Valencia still have to host Granada and face Sevilla away; Real Sociedad will welcome Real Madrid then also play away to Deportivo for their last matches. While this tie could also go either way, my money is on la Real (aka Real Sociedad) to qualify for the Champions League!

Here are the full results from the weekend:

Saturday:
Getafe 0-1 Valencia
Granada 3-0 Osasuna
Sevilla 1-2 Real Sociedad

Sunday:
Levante 2-3 Rayo Vallecano
Deportivo La Coruña 2-0 Espanyol
Real Zaragoza 1-2 Athletic Bilbao
Barcelona 2-1 Real Valladolid

Monday:
Mallorca 1-0 Real Betis

Photo courtesy of ligabbva.com. Check in with @AerysSoccer on a daily basis for the latest headlines in soccer news!

Barça are on track for a record breaking season as they finish the first half unbeaten.

I knew it! I told you so! The Málaga-Barcelona game was incredible. Both teams brought their A-game and what a spectacle it was!

It was always a far off chance that Málaga would be able to beat Barcelona. Nevertheless, Málaga came out strong and matched Barça attack for attack, each side looking equally likely to score first. Demichelis, Isco, Buonanotte, Eliseu and Willy Caballero all had a fantastic game for Málaga, but their heroics were no match for the brilliance produced by Iniesta, Busquets, Messi, and Xavi. The speed at which they pinged the ball around the field was jaw-dropping. Willy Caballero made sure the scoreline stayed even. That was until Messi snuck up on the defense and stole a pass to Caballero and, with a quick feint sending Willy in the wrong direction, scored into the gaping net.

Considering Barça’s smothering dominance, the game went into the halftime break with a 1-0 scoreline. Unfortunately for Málaga, further brilliance from Fabregas and Thiago Alcântara put the game beyond their reach. Buonanotte put a stunning free kick into Victor Valdes’s to give his team a bit of pride. What a performance.

Down at the other end of the table, last-placed Osasuna managed to hold Real Madrid to a disappointing, ugly 0-0 draw that saw Kaká make an appearance after several months on the bench only to be sent off with two yellows after 17 minutes. Mallorca, also strugglingly heavily, fell away 3-1 to Valladolid. After a wonderful start to their season, Mallorca hit a long-lasting period of bad luck and poor form to drop them into the relegation zone.

Valencia received a boost after defeating Sevilla 2-0 at home. However, this season’s Valencia-Sevilla city rivalry hasn’t focused on Valencia and Sevilla; instead it’s Real Betis in Sevilla and Levante in Valencia who have produced the better results so far this season. Sevilla now sit in 12th place with only 19 points. The club’s directors have had enough with the poor showing, fired the manager, and brought in Unai Emery (formally of Valencia) to turn their season around.

To wrap it up, Rayo Vallecano pulled off another incredible win beating Athletic Bilbao 2-0 in San Mames. The tiny team from Madrid now sits in a European spot, even on points with Málaga. Truly inspiring. Here are the rest of the results from the weekend:

Once flying high with success, now struggling to escape the relegation zone.

Friday:
Athletic Bilbao 1-2 Rayo Vallecano

Saturday:
Osasuna 0-0 Real Madrid
Valladolid 3-1 Mallorca
Espanyol 1-0 Celta Vigo
Valencia 2-0 Sevilla

Sunday:
Málaga 1-3 Barcelona
Real Betis 2-0 Levante
Real Sociedad 1-1 Deportivo La Coruña
Atlético Madrid 2-0 Real Zaragoza

Monday:
Getafe 2-2 Granada

The quarterfinals for the Copa del Rey kick off this midweek. Málaga travels to the Camp Nou to take on Barcelona again as Madrid and Valencia start their 3-match duel. These two games could quite possibly lead to an El Clásico for the semifinals yet again. On the other side, Sevilla travels to Zaragoza as Real Betis attempts to win in the Vincente Calderon where Atlético Madrid has been so lethal this season.

Jose Mourinho is sticking to his new year resolution – win every match in 2013. So far so good, yet this is only the first match of the new year. Real Madrid faced Real Sociedad at home beating the club 4-3 in typical Madrid fashion.

Karim Benzema, who was sporting a new hairstyle (I like to call it the Benzhawk), opened the scoring in the second minute with a right-footed shot to the center of the box. Despite Mourinho’s odd choice of not starting captain and goalkeeper Iker Casillas, who was recently voted best keeper in the world for the fifth consecutive time, backfired as Antonio Adan brought down Real player Carlos Vela in the box and was immediately sent off. Madrid were down to 10 men within the first 6 minutes.

With a penalty in the 9′, Xabi Prieto put Real on the board and the match at 1-1. That is until Sami Khedira got his foot on the ball and scored off a corner kick from Carvalho in the 35′. Real equalized the match again, though, before the half with another goal by Prieto five minutes later then topping off with  hattrick after a goal in the 76′.

Real ended the last 10 minutes of the match with 10 men as Dani Estrada brought down Ronaldo, receiving his second yellow and being sent off. Though it was two goals by Cristiano Ronaldo that inevitably sealed the victory for Madrid, only to be scored two minutes apart from one another. The Portuguese international evened up his career stats with Madrid as he scored 171 goals in 171 matches.

Just minutes before the final whistle, Gonzalo Higuain made his comeback from injury, almost scoring a goal.

Even though Madrid were missing Ramos, Pepe, Marcelo and Coentrão, los blancos drove the ball as fiercely as they good, taking every opportunity to counter-attack and rack up those very-needed goals.

Real Madrid end the week with a Copa del Rey match against Celta Vigo on the 9th before facing Osasuna in Liga on the 12th.

Stay tuned to Aerys Soccer for all your La Liga coverage!

Photo courtesy of Real Madrid C.F.

A slumped Iker Casillas, warming the bench.

There’s no doubt that this 2012-13 La Liga campaign has been rough for last season’s Champions, Real Madrid. In fact, it’s been atrocious. Los Blancos are 16 points (and counting) behind rivals, FC Barcelona as well as 13 points behind city rivals, Atletico Madrid at the end of 2012.

The match started of rocky when it was announced that Iker Casillas wouldn’t be tending the goal for Madrid making it the first time in 10 years he has been dropped due to a technical decision. The first half was the same as the second, Malaga wasn’t going to make things easy for Madrid. Deflecting  balls,counter-attacking and a strong defense allowed Malaga to control the match.

The scoreboard didn’t see a goal until the 49th minute from Isco, giving Adan no chance to deflect. Roque Santa Cruz netted two goals for Malaga. Karim Benzema scored a goal with 10 minutes to spare after an OG by Sergio Sanchez in the 66th minute.

Madrid was unable to find an equalizer and fell to their fourth defeat of the season, doubling their losses from last season. With the beginning of this campaign becoming more ad more intolerable, supporters are looking for an excuse. The harsh truth is there is no excuse. With constant injuries, morale in the Madrid club is falling.

But at least we still have Champions League.

Scores from Around the League

Real Betis 1-2 Mallorca

Real Valladolid 1-3 FC Barcelona

Osasuna 1-2 Granada

Athletic Bilbao – Real Zaragoza (Starts at 4pm ET)

Photo courtesy of Real Madrid C.F.

125-year old Celtic defeats Barça.

Last week was very tumultuous for Spanish clubs! First there was UEFA craziness followed by a weekend filled with drama.

Okay so to start with Champions League, Real Madrid barely managed to escape with a draw from their home fixture against Dortmund thanks to a brilliant free kick from Mesut Ozil. Talk about a thing of beauty for the defending La Liga champions. Málaga are still unbeaten even though Milan tried their hardest to change that status. Then on Wednesday, Barcelona fell to Celtic. What. A. Dramatic. Game! It was Celtic’s 125th anniversary, Lionel Messi was still looking for the goal to celebrate the birth of his son Thiago, and, in the end, little ole Celtic took down the giants. To round off Champions League, Valencia put on a great showing at home to defect Borisov 4-2. In the Europa League, Atlético Madrid suffered their first defeat at the hands of Académica and Athletic Bilbao just lost out on a highly exciting game against Lyon. Here are the full results:

Champions League:
AC Milan 1-1 Málaga
Real Madrid 2-2 Borussia Dortmund
Valencia 4-2 BATE Borisov
Celtic 2-1 Barcelona

Europa League:
Académica 2-0 Atlético Madrid
Athletic Bilbao 2-3 Lyon
Twente 0-0 Levante

Whew. Now to get to the really juicy stuff. Real Zaragoza was the highlight of Saturday’s games as they managed to come back from 2-0 down against Deportivo La Coruña to win 5-3! Of course it helped a bit that Pizzi was sent off with his second yellow of the night for diving. Depor suffered greatly without him and conceded to Zaragoza four times in 22 minutes. Osasuna also pulled off an incredible away 3-0 win defeating Espanyol, who are just above them at the bottom of the table. Maybe this win will provide the boost Osasuna need to move up from the relegation zone.

Half blind, still scores

The big headline from the weekend came from Levante vs. Real Madrid. Last time Madrid visited this team in Valencia, they lost 1-0. Already 8 points behind Barça, Madrid could not afford anything other than a win. With both Karim Benzema and Gonzalo Higuaín out with injuries, Ronaldo took up the role at center forward and came away with an injury that removed him from the game after half-time. Levante’s Navarro punched CR7 in the eye leaving the Portuguese captain needing medical aid. Regardless of the injury, Ronaldo managed to score before he completely lost his sight. After Levante equalized and with no strikers left on the field, Mourinho put in  former youth team forward, 20-year old Álvaro Morata. With just his first touch of the game, Morata scored! A 20-year old saved Real Madrid’s title hopes. Incredible!

What happened after the game is still murky, but we do know that the police were called in to stop fighting between “employees” from Levante and Real Madrid. The names “Sergio Ballesteros” and “Pepe” were included in the hubbub. There are conflicting reports on who punched who and who insulted who, but both clubs released statements this week backing up their players. Whew. That’s one sticky situation. The rest of the results from the weekend are:

Saturday:
Rayo Vallecano 3-2 Celta Vigo
Espanyol 0-3 Osasuna
Real Zaragoza 5-3 Deportivo La Coruña
Málaga 1-2 Real Sociedad

Sunday:
Valladolid 1-1 Valencia
Athletic Bilbao 2-1 Sevilla
Mallorca 2-4 Barcelona
Atlético Madrid 2-0 Getafe
Levante 1-2 Real Madrid

Just a heads up, my recap of next weekend’s games will be my last for a few weeks. My semester is coming to an end, so all my teachers are piling on the work before finals. Until next time!

Photos courtesy of LigaBBVA.com and FoxSoccer.

Monday marks the start of a new week for footy! And we’ve got all the headlines you need.  Check out your Monday Daily Kick Around!

La Liga

After weeks of speculation, the Croatian and former Tottenham Hotspur Luka Modric has signed a 5-year deal with the reigning Spanish champions, Real Madrid after a pending medical exam. How can the 26-year old fit in with Madrid? Being one of the most creative players in the Premier League, Modric is sure to bring creativity in the midfield while being a key player in assisting goals. He’ll be a positive influence on on the midfield which seems to lack in confidence from time to time.

“I chose Madrid because they are the best club in the world. They’ve won so many things, so many titles. It’s amazing for me to be here.”

Bienvenidos a Madrid Luka!

FC Barcelona captain Carles Puyol suffered a fractured right cheekbone in their match against Osasuna Sunday after a collision with Roland Lamah. Puyol is currently undergoing tests today and nothing has been confirmed if he’ll be playing in the second leg of Supercopa de Espana on Wednesday.

English Premier League

Things could be looking up for Chelsea FC after the signing of Eden Hazard this summer. On Saturday the Blues defeated Newcastle 2-nil after a goal by Hazard and Fernando Torres, who had one of the worst goal-scoring droughts last season. Alan Pardew, manager of Newcastle, said that Hazard could lead the Blues to a title this year.

“You can see why so many top clubs were chasing Hazard and he has certainly given Chelsea an extra dimension in the first few games of this season.”

Pardew also praised Torres:

“That was as good as I have seen Torres play in some time and I have seen a lot of him. He looks to have a little something back in his game and looked dangerous playing Hazard. It is still the old Chelsea in many ways, but Hazard and Torres are giving them a little extra up front and they will have a good season.”

Bundesliga

Bayern target Javi Martinez is still training with Athletic Bilbao despite reports he was to fly out to Munich today. The 23-year old has been linked with various clubs this summer yet Bayern are keen on signing him.

Did you know that more Americans are watching top international soccer matches than ever before?  Yes, it WAS rhetorical and also not surprising to football fanatics like us, but it’s good for those less passionate or informed Americans to know – so spread the word!   Besides that remarkable data, today’s Daily Kick Around is chock-full of soccer news for your mid-week fix.  Headlines include Fabrice Muamba’s return to Reebok Stadium, a new head coach named for England and so much more.  Get over your Wednesday hump and read on for the exciting soccer news of the day.

English Premier League

A warm welcome back to Fabrice Muamba, who will attend his first Premier League event since his cardiac arrest occurred March 17.  The Bolton midfielder has made a remarkably quick recovery but is uncertain about his football career at this time.  We’ve missed you!

EPL Results

Liverpool 0 – 1 Fulham

Stoke City 1 – 1 Everton

Everton fans were hoping for a win last night, but a single point is still satisfying considering Liverpool lost to Fulham on the same night.  Everton is currently in seventh place, only three points above their Merseyside rivals with only two weeks left in the season.  Everton may well finish above the 18-time champions for the first time.  Dig it out to the end Toffees!

Today’s EPL Fixtures

Chelsea v New Castle United

Bolton v Tottenham

The Football Association made a surprising announcement today.  They named West Brom manager Gary Hodgeson as the new manager for England on a four-year contract.  Most people predicted Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp would get the job, but the FA insisted Hodgeson was their first choice.

This year, more US television viewers tuned in to the highest level of football than last year.  Both Champions League semi-final matches and Monday’s Manchester Derby averaged over a million viewers, up 29% from 2011.  American’s have been a bit slow to embrace the sport with the same passion as the rest of the world, but this is a good sign in the right direction.

Serie A

Last night’s win over Palermo puts Napoli firmly into the third place position in the Italian league and gives them the final Champions League berth.  Their 2-0 victory broke a four-way tie and gives them the opportunity to return to Europe’s top competition next season after a stellar performance this year.

La Liga Results

Getafe 1 – 1 Santander

Granada 2 – 1 Espanyol

Gijon 2 – 3 Villareal

Tonight’s La Liga Fixtures

Atletico v Sociedad

Barcelona v Malaga

Mallorca v Vallecana

Zaragoza v Levante

Sevilla v Betis

A Bilbao v Real Madrid

Valencia v Osasuna

It’s that time again folks! Late Night Liga is upon you! Okay, so it’s not really ‘late’ but I couldn’t help myself, so many things to discuss!

First off, not much of a change in league standings since our last post late Friday, however, Real Madrid and Barcelona are still racing for the title. Who would’ve thunk it? Both clubs played their most important matches Saturday with positive outcomes.

Sporting Gijon visited Real Madrid at the Bernabéu and left disappointed. I can honestly say, as a Madrid supporter, I was insanely nervous to see how we performed. Real’s defense was shaky with no help from Álvaro Arbeloa, who spent most of the match with a confused look on his face. Luckily, Sergio Ramos assisted in Real’s first goal as Gonzalo Higuaín knocked the ball past Gijon’s keeper in the 37th minute. For Gijon, Cuevas scored off a penalty in the 30th giving them their only goal.

The holy trinity of Real Madrid scored one goal each. Higuain, Cristiano Ronaldo in the 74th and the Frenchie Karim Benzema in the 84th minute. Both Ronaldo and Benzema were voted as Men of the Match for their fantastic (and title saving) performance on the pitch. We’re leaders for another week!

Now for Barcelona; they faced a tough Levante club at the Cuidad de Valencia. Scoring opened when Levante’s Jose Barkero scored off a penalty in the 23rd. After that, it was a long road to recovery for the Catalans, who could feel their four-point gap from Real Madrid widen. But in true Barcelona fashion, King Messi saved his club with a comeback goal in 64th minute and scoring his fifth penalty in 5 matches in the 72nd, giving Barcelona a 2-1 victory.

While on the topic of both Real Madrid and Barcelona, they enter the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals this week. Real Madrid face Bayern Munich Tuesday, April 17th. Bayern, who have been one of the top clubs in the Champions League, are looking to break down Real Madrid. This match-up is definitely one to watch next week.

Barcelona faces Chelsea FC Wednesday, April 18th. Most people would likely pull Barcelona as the victors in this match-up but if you caught today’s FA Cup semi-final between Chelsea-Tottenham, you might have to re-think your assumption. When put on the spot, Chelsea can perform.

Moving on, today’s La Liga matches were pretty bland.

Espanyol beat Valencia 4-nil and recorded their first win in 6 matches. Cristian Gómez broke open the scoring from a cut-back from Sergio Garcia in the 26th. Four minutes later, Verdú added a second goal with a shot right outside the box. Beautiful.

Álvaro Vásquez was subbed into the match just after the half to score a goal in the 58th. Espanyol’s fourth and final goal came from Kalu Uche in the 80th which gave Mauricio Pochettino’s side a total of 45 points, just behind Osasuna. Valencia failed in their two-point advantage over Málaga in the battle for Champions League football next season.

Málaga 1-1 Real Sociedad

Real Betis 1-0 Osasuna

Real Zaragoza 1-0 Granada

Villarreal 1-1 Racing Santander

Athletic Bilbao 1-0 Mallorca

Rayo Vallecano 0-1 Atlético Madrid

On Monday, Getafe will host Sevilla FC.

This week is what I like to call as:

Stay tuned later in the week, either Thursday or Friday, for a very special edition of Road to El Clasico. All Clasicos are important, but this week’s Clasico April 21st is very pivotal for both Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, as it could be the deciding factor on which club will raise the cup May 13th.

FUN FACT: Both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi set a record-breaking tally with 41 goals each this season. I think it’s safe to say, these two are the best in the world? Probably.

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest!

Welcome back fútbol fans! This past week of La Liga has been a crazy one with matches Monday-Thursday!

Current standings for the 2-12-2013 campaign are as follows:

On Monday, Málaga beat Racing Santander 3-nil with goals from Santi Cazorla, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Isco. Málaga, who were almost relegated last season, has improved tremendous amounts and will begin the weekend sitting at 4th.

Barca faced Getafe, a club who they lost to earlier in the season, came up on top as they scored 4-nil at the Nou camp with Alexis Sánchez rounding out with two goals. Barcelona are still within a 4-point reach of current leaders Real Madrid, with only 6 matches left of the season and a huge El Clasico coming up next Saturday.

Espanyol lost 2-nil to Osasuna while Real Sociedad and Real Betis drew at 1-1.

Wednesday was a whole different ballgame as all four matches were very entertaining to watch. First on the list was Atlético Madrid – Real Madrid in El Derbi Madrileño. It was a do or die match for Real, who could have seen their title hopes fall out of place. Falcao scored the lone goal for Atléti off a header from Adrian Lopez in the 55′, but it was Real’s Cristiano Ronaldo who made headlines with his 7th hattrick of the season. José Callejón scored their 4th goal minutes after Ronnie’s penalty kick.

Valencia proved why they’re sitting in 3rd after a 4-1 victory against Rayo Vallecano at the Mestalla. After a couple rough weeks, plagued with bad form, Valencia opened up the scoring in the 41′ by Jonas. Jordi Alba, Pablo and another goal by Jonas gave Valencia their win. Diego Costa fired low into the corner giving Rayo their only goal.

Granada drew with Athletic Bilbao 2-2 and Sporting Gijon beat Levante 3-2.

Thursday was another high-scoring day of fútbol as Sevilla sank Zaragoza at home with 3 goals, two from Álvaro Negredo and one from Federico Fazio. Santander lost to Mallorca 3-nil while Villarreal beat Málaga 2-1.

This weekend is another busy one for the players. Real Madrid face Sporting Gijon at the Bernabéu, hoping to pull off a victory. The whites can’t afford to be down ANY points. If Madrid grasp a victory but lose during El Clasico, they’ll still be Liga leaders, even if it’s by one point.

Levante play Barcelona Saturday as well and that match will be broadcasted on ESPN3.com at 4 p.m. ET. Levante have had a fantastic season so they’ll give Barca a little difficulty at the Ciudad de Valencia.

On Sunday, all the other clubs face off with the televised matches being Espanyol – Valencia on ESPN Deportes at 6 a.m. ET and Rayo Vallecano playing Athletic Bilbao on ESPN Deportes at 3:30 p.m. ET.

On Monday Getafe will play Sevilla at the Coliseum Afonso Perez which is a must-watch match as Getafe’s defense are a perfect match for Sevilla’s fast offense.

Ever wondered how Messi & Ronaldo match up? Just check out this video for some interesting statistics!

http://youtu.be/2SiOoiPc03Y

In other news around Liga, Villarreal took a huge blow today as Giuseppe Rossi tore his ACL in training. Rossi, who was on his way back to a good form after suffering an injury in October, will miss Euro 2012 for Italy who were to face Spain in the tournament opener.

We have an update on Barca defender Eric Abidal, who underwent a liver transplant Tuesday. Barca manager, Pep Guardiola (King of the Skinny Ties) stated that the French international was recovering well and that everything is going as planned. It’s unlikely he will return this season, let alone represent France in Euro, but we all wish his a fast recovery!

Twitter is a pretty interesting place to find weird news. Today I noticed a hashtag called #footballermovies. Some of my favorite La Liga inspired ones are ‘Guti & The Beast,’ ‘Lionel King,’ ‘Cesc & The City,’ ‘One Flew Over the Kaka’s Nest,’ ‘Xavitar,’ and ‘Don’t Messi With The Zlatan.’

Bienvenidos! Welcome futbol fans! We ladies at Aerys Soccer love to mix things up when it comes to our soccer coverage so we’re introducing a weekly segment: Late Night Liga. Having a busy weekend where it’s impossible to catch a match or results from the Spanish Primera Division? Lucky for you, Late Night Liga is one way to catch up on all the Liga news, rumors & recaps! Let’s get this first week going, shall we?

First off, there are only eight matches left in the season. EIGHT MATCHES. The current leaders, Real Madrid, have a four point advantage over their Spanish rivals, FC Barcelona. Valencia is currently in third place at 49 points, leaving them with an unreachable 29 point gap from Barcelona. Ouch!

This weekend of course, was nothing but interesting for the Spanish League when Barcelona faced Real Zaragoza on Saturday. The final proved the Catalans more superior as they scored 4-1 at La Romareda. Carlos Aranda scored Z’s only goal of the match after missing a penalty kick in the 25 minute. Captain Carles Puyol opened up the scoring for the defending champs in the 36 minute only to be followed by a beautiful goal from Lionel Messi three minutes later.

Messi scored another goal off a penalty in the 89 minute making the match 3-1. But it wasn’t over folks! Pedro used his lucky right foot off an assist from Messi, to give the Catalans their fourth and final goal.

Rayo Vallecano dominated Osasuna with a 6-0 victory, giving them ‘the highest-scoring match of the week’ award.

Espanyol 2-2 Real Sociedad

Getafe 2-0 Sporting Gijon

Real Betis 3-1 Villarreal

Fernando Llorente scoring Bilbao's only goal.

Today’s matches were pretty low-scoring and quite frankly, a little boring. Levante scored 2 goals over Atlético Madrid while the Mallorca/Granada & Real Madrid/Valencia matches were draws at 0. Athletic Bilbao barely sealed their 1-nil victory over Sevilla after El Rey de Léon AKA Fernando Llorente headed the ball in the top right corner.

For Real Madrid, this week was difficult. Captain Iker Casillas admitted that his club could lose the Liga title this year after dropping two points. It was only a month or so that the Madridistas were sitting comfortably with a 10-point cushion over their rivals, but with injuries & lack of focus, they’ve barely managed to ‘get by’ in matches when they took two draws last month against Málaga & Villarreal. If anything, this is a testament of how quickly things can change in competition. Never underestimate your opponent. However, Barça’s Cesc Fabregas likes to think that Madrid are the likely favorites to win the title and he sure is right about it unless of course, Madrid can’t beat Barça on April 21st.

Now this next week, things are switching up for La Liga. Like I said earlier, there’s only 8 matches left and Liga ends May 13th! Down below are the match schedules for April 9-12th.

Monday, April 9th

Málaga – Racing Santander

Tuesday, April 10th

Osasuna – Espanyol

Real Sociedad – Real Betis

FC Barcelona – Getafe (ESPN 3 or ESPN Deportes)

Wednesday, April 11th

Granada – Athletic Bilbao (ESPN 3 or ESPN Deportes)

Sporting Gijon – Levante

Valencia – Rayo Vallecano

Atlético Madrid – Real Madrid (El Derbi de Madrileño)

Thursday, April 12

Villarreal – Málaga

Racing Santander – Mallorca (ESPN 3 or ESPN Deportes)

Sevilla FC – Real Zaragoza

With that being said, stay tuned for Friday’s edition of Late Night Liga where I’ll be talking about the matches and what we can look forward to in the upcoming weekend!

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter either at @AerysSoccer where you can read about news and recaps from other leagues around the world!

Photo courtesy of Athletic Bilbao