La Liga Weekend Preview: Madrid Face Tough Task At Espanyol
Javier Clemente is an excellent psychologist and his words of wisdom have begun to swing Espanyol's season around. After beating Deportivo La Coruna 3-1 at Montjuic last weekend, the Catalan club now look launching a realistic bid to retain their top flight status next season. It was Espanyol's third home win out of three under the new coach and the self-belief is now fully restored. Real Madrid must be wary of not underestimating their opponents as they look to make ground on Real Sociedad. The European champions have not had a good week as they dropped two points in a 1-1 draw at Athletic Bi
Javier Clemente is an excellent psychologist and his words of wisdom have begun to swing Espanyol's season around. After beating Deportivo La Coruna 3-1 at Montjuic last weekend, the Catalan club now look launching a realistic bid to retain their top flight status next season. It was Espanyol's third home win out of three under the new coach and the self-belief is now fully restored. Real Madrid must be wary of not underestimating their opponents as they look to make ground on Real Sociedad. The European champions have not had a good week as they dropped two points in a 1-1 draw at Athletic Bilbao last weekend and were then thumped 4-0 by Mallorca in the Copa Del Rey in midweek.
Real Sociedad will be confident of maintaining their incredible unbeaten record as they prepare for the Basque Country derby against Athletic Bilbao in San Mames. Raynald Denoueix's side have Valery Karpin back in their line-up and will be looking to increase the gap over their opponents to 24 points. Bilbao are only two points above the drop zone and their erratic displays have done little to inspire confidence that they will stay up this season.
After two successive victories Real Betis now look a good bet to take one of the four Champions League places and victory against fellow European hopefuls Deportivo will increase that belief. The Andalucians have failed to put a decent win of runs together all season and they will be looking to find some consistency against the Andalucians in the Manuel Ruiz de Lopera on Sunday. Depor will want to get back to winning ways after losing to Espanyol last weekend and an embarrassing defeat against Murcia in the second leg of their Copa Del Rey quarter final on Thursday. Jabo Irureta's side still qualified for the semi finals on away goals, but the omens do not bode well for them.
Valencia entertain a Mallorca side that are on a high after beating Real Madrid 4-0 in the cup on Wednesday. What looked to be a certain home victory may turn out to be a hard fought match for the reigning Spanish champions with the Balearic side buoyed by their Copa Del rey exploits.
In Sunday's other matches Celta Vigo meet Sevilla in the Balaidos, Osasuna welcome Villarreal to El Sadar, while Racing travel to Valladolid, Alaves play host to Rayo Vallecano and Malaga meet Recreativo in the Andalucian derby in La Rosaleda.