Five Facts of LaLiga Three Initial Matches

DBasia.news – The 2018-2019 LaLiga just happened for three weeks. Barcelona and Real Madrid are still the main strength dominating the highest competition in Spanish football. Both teams wiped out the beginning matches of LaLiga with victories.

When Barcelona and Madrid are competing to be the best, Europe’s top leagues are entering the pause session due to the international break. Now, all Europe clubs called up in the national team can only expect there won’t be any FIFA virus or injury.

Though just went three matches, the 2018-2019 LaLiga presented the unique stories that – perhaps – you haven’t realized yet. Reported from AS (5/9), there are at least 5 interesting facts from the three matches of 2018-2019 LaLiga. What are they?

1. Atletico Madrid’s Anti-Climax Performance

After winning the UEFA against Madrid with a 4-2 score, public predicted Atletico Madrid would be the main strength disturbing the dominance of Barcelona-Madrid this season. Apparently, during the three initial matches of LaLiga, their performances were inconsistent: draw 1-1 to Valencia, win 1-0 against Rayo Vallecano, and lose 0-2 from Celta Vigo.

The loss against Vigo got worse due to one red card. Statistically, Atletico never scored any on target kick. This is the first time for them in LaLiga in 1778 days. While Stefan Savic got the red card at 70′, added more homework for Diego Simeone.

2. Karim Benzema’s Accuracy

The 30-year-old striker felt the blessing due to Cristiano Ronaldo’s exit to Juventus. Karim Benzema is now no longer the servant for Ronaldo and could freely show his accuracy in scoring goal. In three matches with Madrid in LaLiga, he scored four goals.

The latest two goals were presented to Leganes when Madrid won 4-1 at Santiago Bernabeu. The condition ensured that Benzema has scored the goals to 33 opponents in LaLiga. In total, Benzema scored 131 goals to 33 opponents for 9 years supporting Madrid.

3. Julen Lopetegui’s Touch

Just in short time coached by Julen Lopetegui replacing Zinedine Zidane, Madrid successfully applied their desired performance. Beside the collectivity, Madrid could follow the tiki-taka style of Barcelona in the Pep Guardiola era: short passings, great movement dynamics, ball possession, and offensive performance.

The dominance could be seen in the match against Leganes with 78:22 percent ball possession. In total, the comparison is 17 to 8, and most noteworthy is 870 Madrid’s passings (twice compared to Leganes’ 252 passings). The record was the highest for Madrid since 2005-2006 LaLiga.

4. Lionel Messi’s 151 Assists

Lionel Messi created two assists when Barcelona defeated SD Huesca with distinctive score 8-2. Again and again, La Pulga scored the new record in the new season of LaLiga with 151 assists. This made him as the first player doing it since the beginning of LaLiga a century ago or 89 years ago.

5. Joaquin Sanchez, LaLiga’s Iconic Player

The derby between Sevilla was also exciting as El Clasico (Barcelona against Real Madrid) or Madrid derby between Madrid and Atletico. The match between Sevilla and Real Betis is becoming more challenging because Betis raised their level under Quique Setien.

In their latest match in third-week of LaLiga, Betis won 1-0 against Sevilla at Benito Villamarin by the only goal of Joaquin Sanchez, the familiar name. Joaquin is the oldest player scoring the goal in Sevilla derby in this century in age 37 year and 43 days.