A. Griezmann, RSO, 28.00 P. Osvaldo, Espanyol, 23.00 Rubén Suárez, LEV, 20.50
Duda, Malaga, 20 Miguel de las Cuevas, Sporting, 15.50 Juanlu, LEV, 12.00
M. Stankevicius, Valencia, 18.00 M. Pablo, Deportivo, 13.50 M. Demichelis, Malaga, 13.5 J. Mathieu, Valencia, 13.00
D. Aranzubía, Deportivo, 20.00
For the record, this was the team of week 32. This is the best team you could have had. With a 4-3-3 you could have got yourself 197 points. And not a Barca or Real player in sight.
I've been putting it off to wait for the Villarreal v Zaragoza results but it seems they will never show. Nice to see so many unusal players grabbing the headlines and some old stalwarts like Osvaldo hitting the heights once again. Duda does not cease to impress.
The distribution of points for the first 11 was thus:
A stunning weekend in La Liga as a host of dark horses stole in to grab the headlines while the more notorious show ponies were bumped to the sidelines.
The main story is obviously Mourinho's first loss at home in 10 years: the game which allowed Gijon's GK Juan Pablo (John Paul to you and me) to score a whopping 29 points! Naturally, the Mou wheeled out his "they parked the bus" complaints, but the fact that Pablo had to make 11 saves, rather suggests it was the Real forwards rather than Gijon's defence that was responsible for the defeat.
Juan Pablo holds Hernandez (reuters)
His charges were hopelessly shown up by the ruthless efficiency of Miguel del la Cuevas who snatched a rare opportunity and match winning goal to earn himself 14.5 pts, a place week's best XI and give Gijon the win. Real, without Benzema and Ronaldo, had to rely on Adebayor to lead the line, and the Man City loanee had a shocker missing a host of chances registering a meagre 5 pts. Half-fit Higuain was dragged off the bench in the 2nd half to save his side but the Argentinian could not save his Mou. Fortunately for Fantasy pickers, his tiny 4.5 will surely see his value drop below 20 and make him an appealling pick for next week. Di Maria with 12 and Ozil with 8 returned their value as expected but Arbeloa let me down with a measly 0.5.
Roberto Soldado was the ubermensch of the weekend, plundering 4 goals and 45 points as Valencia crushed Getafe 4-2 and jumped to 3rd. Soldado had 5 goals in 28 appearances before this but his uneering display ensured Valencia bounced back to winning ways after two defeats in a row going into the international break. The man tends to blitz. He got 29 pts in week 13 but has been quiet since.
Diego Costa hattrick Photo EFE
Diego Costa, (valued at just 5.8!) started ahead of Diego Forlan and scored a hattrick to help Atletico win a difficult tie 3-2 away at in form Osasuna. A bit of a shocker all round there. On a personal note, I was pretty chuffed with the prescience of my Kike Sola pick, as the centre forward scored for the home side (but only got 9.5). Was a bit disappointed in Camunas for OSA who only got 1.5.
Levante did the unthinkable and scored a load of goals without Caicedo featuring. Stuani took on the mantle and again at the astonishingly cheap rate of 6.31 scored twice and got 31 as Levante beat relegation rivals Malaga 3-1.
Rakitic had another superb week at the heart of Sevilla's midfield. Who is this guy? I was pleased I forked out on the 16.4 million man as he got 16.5 points without a goal as the southerners crushed Zaragoza 3-1. Former Chelsea man Jarosik had another fine game for the away side scoring a goal.
Osvaldo
Another ex-prem reject, Giovani dos Santos was also amongst the goals as Kennedy Bakircoglu's Racing Santander snatched a surprise 2-1 win at Espanyol. Espanyol's season is going steadily down the pan after they looked so good earlier on. For my part, I was again pleased to have Osvaldo as the striker returned to the starting 11 to score a pen, but a bit miffed that he only got 11 pts.
Hercules delivered another blow to my week as they beat Sociedad 3-1 away thanks to the dutch Gareth Bale - Royston Drenthe (registered a defender, plays left wing, Hercules' best attacking threat). The cheaky scamp scored twice to ensure Sociedad's and my GK Bravo registered -1. I took some solice in defender Gonzalez (valued 3) scoring 4.5. 150% return! Hercules haven't done anything away from home since they beat Barca at the Nou Camp at the start of the season.
Barca in the mean time continued their tedious march to the title, and two of their defenders complete this week's top XI. Pique poked one in to score the only goal and Dani Alves must have done everything else as he got 15pts. Messi came off the bench to get 5. Awarded a rare start, Affellay scored more than 0.5 points for the first time since arriving with 5!
So here is this week's star 11. Of course, this could all change following tonight's match between Almeria and Athletico Bilbao.
player-team-(price) score
R. Soldado - VAL - (12.92) 45.00 Diego Costa - AMR - (5.80) 35.00 Stuani - LEV - (6.31) 31.00
Giovani dos Santos - RAC - (9.90) 17.00 I. Rakitic - SEV - (16.40) 16.50 J. Jarosik - RZG - (6.19) 15.00 Miguel de las Cuevas - SPO - (13.49) 14.50
Dani Alves - BAR - (18.13) 15.00 G. Piqué - BAR - (7.78) 14.50 R. Drenthe - HER - (14.17) 26.00
Mallorca registered the upset of the evening defeating 5th placed Espanyol 2-1, while Sevilla joined Mallorca in the climb towards European football places, easing to a 3-0 win over Gijon.
There were no wonder scores: all round team work was the order of the day. Mallorca's Nsue was the top scoring player of the evening with 16pts. But, Seville's players dominated the top scorers, with 7 out of the top 11 coming from Southern side.
Perotti (14), Fabiano (13.5) and Negredo (8) did the damage up front, Varas (10) kept up his good form deputising in goal, but the defenders truly excelled with Navarro (10.5), Dabo (10) and Fazio (9.5) all returning excellent value. Dabo was worth 3 at the start of the day, Navarro, 6.
I only had Sevilla's Rakitic and Gijon's Jose Angel playing last night. Rakitic got a reasonable 6.5 off a value of 8. Angel didn't turn up unfortunately. Hoping for a big night Thursday from Real with Ozil, Di Maria, Marcelo and Adebayor lining up. Tonight looking to Sociedad's Tamudo and Atletico's Koke can keep up their goalscoring form and Barca's GK Pinto to keep up the good work in a tricky away tie at Valencia.
Espanyol have slumped to 6th while RSO have been climbing to 8th.
Espanyol have lost 4 in a row - seeing the once imperious GK Kameni's value plumet to 10.
But Espanyol have only lost thrice at home to Barca, Madrid and Villarreal
RSO have lost only 1 in 4 (at the Bernabeau)
Callejon and Duscher are carrying knocks for ESP
Tamudo scored for Espanyol the last time that Espanyol lost at home to RSO (8 years ago)
Predictions
An Espanyol victory has to be a slight favourite, but they have been struggling with goals and can expect fierce resistance from RSO. Many ESP players' value have sunk due to their recent poor run. Tempting bargains include:
Forward, Sergio Garcia, 7.9
Forward, Luis Garcia, 12.95
Defender, E Galan, 1.00
GK, Kameni, 10.
For RSO, there are few temptations to be had with a good solid run of form for the team all round. It seems worth hanging on to Tamudo if you have him for cheap. I got him in at 11 his value has soared to 16. A good shout for a goal against his old side. Prieto is good value but will have to go though after his dissapointing display last week.
Predicted score: 2-1 goals for Callejon for ESP and Tamudo for RSO
Real have won all 11 games at home this season but have been stuttering of late. Apart from their 4-1 defeat of Sociedad, they have not managed more than 1 goal in the past 5 liga games. Levante have been fluent, picking up three wins on the trot without conceding a goal.
Levante's most recent four games (Levante's score first)
Real Madrid 1 - 0 RCD Mallorca
Osasuna 1 - 0 Real Madrid
Real Madrid 4 - 1 Real Sociedad
RCD Espanyol 0 - 1 Real Madrid La Liga
Munua is not Levante's number one but has kept three clean sheets in a row for Levante since he returned to the first team three weeks ago. He had not played since week 3, starting the season with three negative FF scores in a row. However, his excellent run is of course largely owed to the defence in front of him. He has only had to make 7 saves in these three wins.
Realistically, Levante haven't got a prayer, but they have an inkling of hope in that Real are likely to field a weakened side ahead of their upcoming CL clash. They have little choice but to give Antonio Adan his home debut in La Liga with captain Iker Casillas suspended.
Adan was outstanding last week with 5 saves. Many came away from Real's meeting with Espanyol giving the Catalan's keeper Kameni the plaudits having made 9 saves to keep Los Blancos at bay.
The story of the week will be this: Real's title challenge is over. It was more or less over a couple of weeks ago when they drew at Almeria, but this sealed the deal. Mourinho's men have been grasping and stumbling to stay on their feat in the title race but a 1-0 loss at Osasuna, while Barca cruised to another effortless win, 3-0 away win at Hercules hammered the points home. Barca are 7 clear.
So much of prescient sporting prediction is about assuring that the statistical probable truths stay firmly at the forefront of one's thinking: any whiff of hopes and dreams about what may occur must be kept securely under wraps. We must not confuse what is going to happen with what will. Thus, just because a team who's record breaking form is proving that they are one of, if not the, greatest teams in history had a blip against a minnow side at the start of the season, does not mean it is going to happen twice (or that you should cast off their most consistent scorers); nor does it mean that a top 10 side who have emphatically won two home games on the trot will repeat the feat against a side from the bottom half of the table.
Osasuna 1 - 0 Real Madrid... down and out in the autonomous community of Navarre
Javier Camunas - PES likeness
For the whites, once again, Ronaldo top scored in stats (11.5pts 2 SOTs and 5 Fws) but didn't score a goal, once again no other player evidenced any kind of attacking threat - of the rest Di Maria top scored with 4 pts.
For Osasuna, Ricardo - as in week 18 - was superb in goal, scoring handsomely with 15 pts (4 saves) and was joint top scorer for the reds alongside match winning midfielder Javier Camuñas. Defender S. Fernandez got a notable 10.5 and has scored 9+ in 3 of the past 6 weeks. Ex Birmingham City striker Walter Pandiani reminded us of his qualities with a -1.5.
Hercules 0 - 3 Barca... top banana
Messi got 2 goals and only his 2nd +20 score in 6 weeks with 33 points. His value is still 43. Pedro (who I inexplicably dropped) got another goal and 19.5 pts. Dani Alves returned to score 2 assists and 17.5 points. Quite pleasingly, Villa (worth 29) scored -0.5. Such a risky pick.
Mallorca 0 - 4 Sporting Gijon... A tale of two Castros
This has to be the shock scoreline from Saturday night's results. Mallorca may have lost their last two games - away to the Madrids - but they had been in good home form and put up a strong fight at the Bernabeau. They had won their last two home games 4-1 and 3-0. But, alas, the warning signs were there: only last week Sporting's "shock" defeat of Atletico was being praised on these pages.
Last night's results saw these two sides consentinaed together: Mallorca plummeting to 11th with Gijon leaping to 12th. Punting for Mallorca's keeper Dudu Aouate(-14) was a grievous error; hotly tipped defender Nunes folded (-2); striker Pierre Webo (brought in for Barca's Pedro) limped to 0.5; at least midfielder Gonzalo Castro put up some resistance with 9.
For Sporting, another Castro (Diego) was the hero with a brace from midfield and 18pts. Former Rangers striker Nacho Novo also got on the scoresheet and notched a worthy 10.
Real Sociedad 2 - 0 Almeria... this is Basque country
Real Madrid and Mallorca took account for 7 of my 11 and cumulatively left me a little queasy. Luckily RSO didn't "do a Mallorca" and Basque boys Tamudo and Xavi Prieto gave me a little more faith in myself. Tamudo got a goal and a delicious 20.5 pts (from value 6). Xavi got a respectable 8.
Espanyol 0 - 1 Villarreal... gunning for you
This was a huge win for The Yellow Submarine (s?) over the excellent Espanyol and will have Real Madrid looking over their shoulders: 3rd place villarreal are in form and 6 points behind. The match winner once again was Rossi (18 points) and Diego Lopez in goal found his gloves (now that I dropped him) with 17 pts!
I was happy to have Sergio Garcia for the Catalans. Valued 11, the striker got a respectable 9.
An exciting match, unusually for the obdurate Deportivo. Julien Escude scored again for Seville and striker Alvaro Negrego got a brace and 20.5 points, his second scored "via a gorgeous ball from Didier Zokora". Inexplicably, I held on to Martin Caceres from last week and he got 3 pts.
Lassad Nouioui did the business for Depor with two himself and 20 pts. A quick look at Deportivo's team stats tells me that, yes, the legendary Juan Valeron does still play for them, but is sadly worth just 3.5, his highest score of the season being 2.5.
Other results:
Atlético Madrid 0 - 2 Athletic Bilbao
Lots of big points for Bilbao as they stretched the gap between themselves in 6th and Madrid in 7th to 5 points. Toquerro 2 goals and 26 points (the striker's first goals of the season). GK Gorka Iraizoz 24 points. Defender Iraola a majestic 17.
Pongolle - On call
Levante UD 2 - 0 Getafe CF
A goal and assist for Caicedo
Del Horno 13 pts
Málaga CF 1 - 2 Real Zaragoza
Duda got 21 points yet oddly his price plummeted from 21 to 16.
Sinama Pongolle was amongst the goals for Zaragoza.
Xinhuanet reminds us this week that "FC Barcelona travels to Alicante to face the only side to defeat them this season in Spain' s matchday 21 on Saturday."
Dani Alves has been training and could be back so Adriano may disappear back to the underworld before he is called upon again. Pedro should continue for me in attack. It doesn't seem necessary or tempting to splash out on expensive wonders such as Villa or Messi. Hercules main worry is Royston Drenthe. The dutch flanker has been in great form but since the recent pay dispute he and and his side seem to be in freefall.
Tempting players: only Pedro, maybe.
Osasuna (17th) v Real Madrid (2nd) - sun
Ade checks in
Real's new signing Emmanual Adebayor may be a boon for Jose Mourinho but the arrival of the Togolese striker only adds more uncertainty to the Real Madrid forward line for fantasy pickers. He's rumoured to be a certain starter but will Benzema be ditched after his match winning performance last week? Much aspersions have been cast about the French no.9 Benzema, who, it turns out, isn't a no.9 at all.
Tempting players: after recent disappointments, none feel safe.
Mallorca (9th) v Sporting Gijon (15th) - sat
Pierre Webo
This fixture would seem to offer the most juicy returns with Mallorca surely set to get back to winning ways against the league minnows. Forwards Tereja, Nsue, Perreira and Webo (all valued around the 10 mark) all started at the Bernabeau and any of these will surely be a profitable selection.
I'm tempted by Webo, if only because he's their top scorer and I haven't given him a run out before. It seems prudent to give him a run out at the expense of Benzema. I've also drafted in Nunes in defence after his glowing recommendation by Goal.com.
Tempting players: anyone who's fit at Mallorca, especially defensive line (GK Aouate) and forwards.
A.Madrid (7th) v A.Bilbao (6th) - sun
The clash of the Atleticos is one of the ties of the round. Madrid are stumbling along but could welcome back Reyes and Aguero. Bilbao however are flying and should be well in the mood to score an upset.
Tempting players: A.Madrid bargain defenders A.Lopez (2.46) and Perea (2.62).
Espanyol (5th) v Villarreal (3rd) - sun
Another exciting and hard to predict tie. It seems worth hanging on to baby Ruben up front for Villarreal, especially as Espanyol have just sold one of their best defenders. It would be nice to draft in a couple of Espanyol forward players such as Sergio Garcia or Callejon, but Villarreal's defenders and keeper will have to go.
Tempting players: Espanyol forwards, Garcia (a bargain at 11), Callejon (18) and Luis Garcia (16)
Tamudo
Real Sociedad (11th) v Almeria (18th) - sat
Could be an apt time to draft in superstar Xavi Prieto from the Sociedad midfield. The young buck has dropped in value to 12.76 and is surely likely to do the business for a Sociedad side who seem to be finding some form.
Also, veteran striker Tamudo comes in up front in the place of injured Javier Llorente and represents a tempting replacement for Villarreal's Ruben at 6.64.
Other games to consider:
Sat, Jan 29 Malaga v Zaragoza: a first win for newly moneyed Malaga against struggling Z?
Sat, Jan 29 Deportivo v Seville: a turgid but likely win for Seville.
Sat, Jan 29 Levante v Getafe: A good opportunity for Getafe to get their season back on track
Mon, Jan 31 Racing Santander v Valencia: Surely a win for Los Chos.
Back in November, Barcelona put 8 past Almeria in a ruthless visit to La Liga' s minnows, and surely it will only be a matter of how many for Real. Mourinho has no new injury worries and it seems he will go with the same front 4 that beat Villarreal with Kaka likely to come off the bench again. It seems worth hanging on to the Brazilian (market 11.78, bought at 10.38) whose value is only going to go up, and the same should apply to Karim Benzema (m 12.81, b 11.69) with Mourinho, sort of backing the Frenchman this week.
Barcelona (1st) v Malaga (16th) (Sun)
And surely another routine win and a record for Barca against the recently moneyed Malaga. The Boquerones have added Julio Baptista, Ignacio Camacho, Sergio Asenjo,Enzo Marescaand Martin Demichelis, but this surely will not be enough to resist Messi et al. Unsurprisingly, in fantasy terms there are no great bargains to be had. Of the front three - Messi (45.83), David Villa (28.14), Rodriguez (21.14) - only the latter looks great value. Villa averages 13 but even when he scored last week, he only got 12.5. In midfield, it is tempting to take a punt on new signing Ibrahim Affellay (4.07), who was on the bench for the past two games and is surely due a first team opportunity soon.
Villarreal (3rd) v Osasuna (15th) (sat)
Surely a home win for the Submarine, who by many accounts gave Real a run for their money, despite losing 4-2 last week. With Ruben starting and scoring in that game in the place of the long term injured Nilmar, this unknown quantity looks set to continue up front with Rossi and looks a bargain at 6.55. In midfield, the attacking options of Cani (10.71), Carzola (15.26, averaging 8.03) or Valero (11.77) appeal. Also, Diego Lopez has to come into the fantasy goal, his price having sank to 11.26 thanks to his conceding 4 at Real. But the yellows can take nothing for granted; Osasuna's Ricardo was the top scoring goalkeeper last week at home to Getafe. Although, this may also say a lot about Osasuna's defensive short comings.
Ruben "Warpath" Villarreal, not to be confused with Ruben, Villarreal
Valencia 4th v Deportivo 13th (Sun)
Valencia have to be clear favourites, cruising into the game on a great run of form, while Deportivo will still be recovering from the 4-0 battering at home to Barca last week. Valencia's Juan Mata scored the only goal last week in their one nil win at Levante and, with the striker penning a new deal this week, looks a safe pick. Although, priced at 18.38, there may be some better bargains around (e.g. Ruben).
Sevilla 10th v Espanyol 5th (Sat)
This is the most closely matched tie of the round with both sides in fantastic form heading into this game. Sevilla have won 4 on the trot and in Kanoute and Fabiano have an in form, dangerous strike force. But, Espanyol have one of the best keepers in the league at the moment in Carles Kameni.
Athl Madrid 6th v Mallorca 8th (Mon)
This should be one of the games of the week but both teams are likely to cancel each other out. Forlan is tempting at 17 but the Uruguayan hasn't scored in La Liga for 6 weeks. Likewise, Aguero (20), is unlikey to have a great time against a decent Mallorca defence.
And the rest...
Saturday
Getafe 7th v Real Sociedad 12th Zaragoza 20th v LEV 17th Sporting 18th v Hercules 11th Athl Bilbao 9th v Racing 14th
