Antoine Griezmann: Real Sociedad's French star of the future

Griezmann Wagon Wheel: Click to Enlarge

In a weekend when the El Clasico bigshots squeezed out pitiful fantasy point, the door was left open for some of the league's lesser known stars to shine. And French starlet Antoine Griezmann siezed the day and registered the stand-out performance from Jornada 32. The 20 year old French forward scored twice for Real Sociedad in their vital 2-1 win over Sporting Gijon and top scored the round (pending delayed results from Villarreal 1-0 Zaragoza) with 28pts. This superb display deserves closer attention.



Griezmann's triumphant week caps a stellar season for the forward who has been one of the league' most consistent performers. He has 225 pts, averages 7.26 and is ranked 19th overall in the top scorers list (just ahead of Soldado (Valencia), Nilmar (Villarreal) and Ozil (Real)). His brace took his goals tally to 7 for the season but this is a forward whose efficacy is in his all round play in the final third. While he has just 1 assist, he has also registered 20 shots on target, delivered 64 Successful crosses, won 32 Corners and drawn 37 Fouls. It all adds up.

His 28 pts was his highest weekly total this season and was a welcome reprieve for Sociedad who have been struggling for goals and slipping dangerously close to the relegation zone. With Raul Tamudo seemingly having forgotten how to be a centre forward and main man Javier Llorente missing since Week 20, Griezmann has stepped up to the plate in his side's hour of need.

Real Sociedad may not be the first club people associate with nurturing the young stars of the future but in Griezmann and Xabi Prieto, the blue Basques have produced two of the outstanding young players of this Liga season and will struggle to hold onto the young bucks for 2011/12.

U-19 Champion

• Griezmann also lined up for the French u-19 side that beat their Spanish counterparts in the European Championships in July 2010. However, the wing-wonder didn't quite have the impact he would have hoped for according to Goal.com's ratings

• Total Football Madness have provided a useful write up on the french man. According to them, Griezmann is "the next big thing to come out of France"

• I enjoyed this fab clip where Griezmann invites his teammates to invade a car after scoring against Deportivo:

Real Madrid 1 - 1 Barcelona: clasico stat review

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Barcelona players against Real Madrid players. By all accounts it sounded like Real Madrid were largely on the backfoot fighting to contain the irresistable Catalans. But in Fantasy Football terms, the Madristas were more successful. Overall, Mourinho's men scored 45 pts compared to Barca's 30. Both teams endured some heavy negatives with Raul "the liability" Albiol conceding a hefty -11.5 and the usually prolific Alves registering -7.5. Messi and Ronaldo were the inevitable goal scorers but both were largely supressed by the respective defences. Puyol, Pedro and Maxwell scored 0 for Barca, only Xavi Alonso got a 0 for Real. The average Barcelona player score was 1.07. For Real, it was 3.2.