Jornada 11 begins NOT today; starts tomorrow
Sat. 22 Oct.
1400 Rayo 5, Cádiz 1 Rayo is in 10th place, but they're just four points above the drop. Cádiz is next-to-last, two points back of the lowest teams (three of them
) not in the drop. At 30', Ledesma saves the furniture for Cádiz . . . and again at 32'. At 42', Carcelén fouls in the box; after VAR revue, red card for Carcelén and penalty taken and scored by Izi Palazón at 44'--1-0. At 45'+2', Alvaro García scores with a great shot--2-0 at the half. 12,975 reported in Vallecas. At 61', Alcaraz sees a second yellow, and Cádiz is reduced to nine men.
At 63', Lejeune makes it 3-0 with a great free kick. At 79', Sergio Camello makes it 4-0; assist by Isi Palazón. At 82', an own goal by Balliu of Rayo puts Cádiz on the board--4-1. At 87', Randy Nteka of Rayo sees a red card for a head butt. At 89', Lejeune scores to make it 5-1; assist by Camello. Rayo has their biggest win in like forever
1615 Valladolid 1, Real Sociedad 0 Valladolid has climbed to 11th place, three points above the drop. La Real has won FIVE in a row in LaLiga, climbing to third place. At 11', the VAR giveth, the VAR taketh away. A bit strange, but the VAR takes away a goal seemingly scored by Valladolid when the defense of la Real has a double error on a "centro chut" by Monchu. At 16', Sergio León scores and Valladolid gets to keep this one--1-0. At 31', Remiro saves what woulda been 2-0. At 45', VAR taketh away from Take Kubo, who fired in from outside the area--apparently a foul was spotted before the attack that produced the goal--still 1-0, and still 1-0 at the half. At 83', la Real seems to have scored . . . but Karrikaburu was offside on the play, and VAR taketh away
--still 1-0. Valladolid holds on to win, assuring themselves 11th place at the jornada's end. La Real will remain in third place if Betis and Atleti tie tomorrow, but a win for either of these two would leave them in third place.
1830 Valencia 1, Mallorca 2 Valencia is a "una de cal y otra de arena" team--ie their output varies. Now they are eighth, five points back of the last CL spot. Mallorca is 15th, one point ahead of the drop. Scoreless first half in Mestalla--Mallorca hanging tough
Valencia's breakthrough comes at 51', as Lino is tripped in the area. Cavani converts the pk at 52'--1-0. 41,199 reported on hand in Mestalla. At 64', Amath is fouled in the Valencia area. Muriqui converts the pk at 66'--1-1. At 83', Mallorca takes the lead
Kang-In Lee scores from in close, with a wee bit of help from a deflection--1-2. EIGHT minutes added time
Mallorca holds on to win; climbs to 12th place at the moment.
2100 Real Madrid 3, Sevilla 1 El Realísimo reigns supreme atop LaLiga. Sevilla has climbed to 12th place, but they're just two points above the drop. Can they do an about-face and get something from this game
At 5', Sevilla loses the ball in deep; Vini JR. crosses for Modric to score at an angle--1-0. And that's the score at the half. Much as I hate to say it, Sevilla looked very bad in the first half. Can they put anything together to offer a decent second half
59,625 reported on hand. Well, Sevilla might be able to do something--at 54', Lamela ties the game at 1-1. At 79', Rafa Mir loses the ball and el Real is off to the races, Marco Asensio (I think) assisting Lucas Vázquez, who makes no mistake--2-1. And two minutes later, Fede Valverde makes it 3-1 from distance. And that's the final. Sevilla played a very good 20 minutes or so in the second half. "Algo es algo."
Sun. 23 Oct.
1400 Espanyol 2, Elche 2 Espanyol is one point and two places above the drop. Elche is mired in the cellar, six points back of the lowest teams not in the drop. At 11', Pere Milla connects with a header from the top of the area--great goal
--0-1. At 24', perhaps offside, Javi Puado puts in a cross to tie it--1-1. At 42', Palacios of Elche sees a red card, rescinded after the ref consults VAR. It's 1-1 at the half. 17,560 reported on hand. At 67', Braithwaite scores for Espanyol, cutting through the area--2-1. At 82', Gonzalo Verdú ties it for Elche with a volley inside the area--2-2. Espanyol bounces one off the woodwork as the game ends at 93'+--2-2 the final.
1615 Betis 1, Atlético 2 Or #5 hosts ##4. Each of these two is on 20 points. Atleti leads by one in GD. The Benito Villamarín is gonna be rockin'
Scoreless first half in the Benito Villamarín, where 50,179 are on hand. At 54', Griezmann takes a corner; the ball grazes a defender and goalie Rui Silva and goes in
--0-1 for Atleti. At 71', Griezmann's shot slips through the wicket and goes in--0-2. Rui Silva is NOT a happy man
At 84', Fekir scores with a free kick from the balcony of the area--1-2 and game on
At 91', Betis hits the crossbar. At 92', Rui Silva saves from Joao Félix. And Atleti wins it, climbing to third place, while Betis will be fifth should Athletic not win in the Camp Nou later.
1830 Girona 1, Osasuna 1 Girona is now top of the drop. Osasuna is in the last (probable) European spot. Kike Barja gives Osasuna the lead at 37'--0-1. Girona ties it just before halftime in Montilivi---1-1; goal by David López at 45'+1'. And the game ends tied. Girona, at the moment, is above the drop on GD ahead of Getafe, both at 9 points.
1830 Villarreal 2, Almería 1 The Yellow Sub comes off a hiding in the Camp Nou. Almería is above the drop by one point and five places
Gonzalo Meleto gives Almería the lead with a goal from inside the area--0-1. Halftime. Can the Yellow Submarine turn this around
Wow
At 56', Alex Baena ties the game with a header off a corner, but he then exposes a "thank you for support" message on his under-shirt, for which he sees a second yellow and is sent off
So it's 1-1 and Villarreal will play on with 10 men. An epic struggle down to the final whistle
At 94', the last minute to be played, Jackson of Villarreal breaks free one-on-one with Almería's goalie, and he scores the winner--2-1 and Villarreal takes seventh place and is tied on points for sixth with Athletic; the latter will now play at Barça, to wit
2100 Barça 4, Athletic 0 Can Barça repeat their success against Villarreal
Athletic is sixth and unbeaten on the road. Barça scores at 12'--Dembélé--, 18'--Sergi Roberto--, and 22'--Lewandowski to take a 3-0 lead into the second half. At 73', Ferrán Torres makes it 4-0, which is the final score.
Mon. 24 Oct. 2100 Celta 1, Getafe 1 Celta must shake off their big loss at Valladolid--they´re just two points above the drop. Getafe is one point and one place above the drop. At 43', Enes Unal scores with a wonderful free kick from outside the area--0-1. If Getafe wins it, they'll climb to 13th place. Halftime in Balaídos--0-1; 9,774 reported on hand. At 53', Soria saves the furniture for Getafe. At 89', Aspas centers and Aidoo heads in, even though Soria gets a hand on the shot--1-1. That's the final; the point for the tie is enough to lift Getafe above the drop by a point; Celta moves up to 13th place.
--to wit 
At 11', Valverde scores from the balcony of the area to give Real the lead--0-1. Still 0-1 at the half. At about 69', Real's goalie, Lunin, saves the furniture. At 75', el Real finally breaks through for a second goal--Benzema the scorer--0-2. At 89', Rodrygo assists Marco Asensio--0-3. That's the final--el Real assures themselves a lead of at least three points over second-place Barça, and will have a bigger lead should Barça fail to beat Villarreal tomorrow.
