(Football news) Matchday 5 brought out all the action as Real Madrid became outright leaders of La Liga, although Barcelona have played a match less, they still look pretty unconvincing as they haven’t found the proper groove. With Madrid’s win they have opened a two point gap over Atletico Madrid, who dropped points against Athletic Club.
Real Madrid came from behind against Valencia to win 2-1 late on to claim all three valuable points. Carlo Ancelloti’s side is going through a transition period but have proven their champion like mentality as this is their second victory after going a goal down. In the first half, both sides seemed off the pace as all the action took place in the second half. Hugo Duro scored in the 66th minute to give Valencia the lead but just when the Valencia fans thought that they’ll get the victory, up stepped Vincius Junior and Karim Benzema to score right at the end to give the Los Blancos the much needed points. With this result Real are on top with 13 points from 5 matches as they have a superior goal difference of 8.
Barcelona continued their poor start to the season as they drew 1-1 to Granada, Ronald Koeman after this result is under significant pressure to save his job as the Barca board are not happy with the string of results. He made several changes to starting XI as he played Coutinho and youngster Demir on the wings but it make much difference as Granada took the lead in the second minute through Duarte, it was only in the 90th minute that a cross from the 17 year old Gavi was met by Araujo to head home the equaliser for them. With this result Barcelona have suffered one their worst start in the clubs recent history, having managed 8 points in 4 matches and currently sit in 7th place.
Atletico Madrid failed to reclaim the top spot in the table as they drew 1-1 to Athletic Club, Diego Simone handed Griezmann his second debut but he failed to inspire the side in what was a very dull match. The only significant moment to take place was when substitute Joao Felix picked up two yellow cards in a space of minutes as he argued with the referee about being booked moments ago, although Athletic Club couldn’t capitalize on being a man up. With this result Atletico Madrid have 11 points from 5 matches and sit in 2nd position in the table.
Other notable results were:
Real Sociedad 0 – 0 Sevilla
Mallorca 0 – 0 Villarreal
Real Betis 2 (Pedrosa(og), Fekir) – 2 Espanyol (Vidal, Cabrera)
Rayo Vallecano 3 (Trejo(pen), Ciss, Falcao) – 0 Getafe
